EU Diplomats Said to Agree on Iran Oil Embargo:medieval:
European Union diplomats agreed to place an embargo on the import of Iranian oil with a phase-in period to July 1, an EU official said.
Foreign ministers of the 27-nation EU are expected to formally approve the embargo plan later today at a meeting in Brussels, the official said on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf passageway for about 20 percent of globally traded oil, if the EU and the U.S. impose stricter sanctions. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait ship crude and liquefied natural gas through the strait.
“We can keep the Strait of Hormuz open and we will do what is necessary to achieve that,” Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in a BBC Radio 4 interview today.
Oil rose in London as the EU ministers met. Brent oil for March settlement advanced as much as 59 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $110.45 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at $110.15 a barrel at 9:15 a.m. London time.
EU ministers must balance their wish to act fast to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear program against the need to give some member states time to find alternative oil sources. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said sanctions might also target Iran’s central bank. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the steps are aimed at “drying up funding” for Iran’s nuclear research.
‘Impress Iran’
“Europe is now preparing to sanction those parts of the Iranian economy where it will hurt: oil and finance,” Jan Techau, director of the Brussels-based European Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in an interview. “Europeans are united on this and it is this unity that seems to impress Iran.”
The U.S. and Europe have raised pressure on Iran this month after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations atomic watchdog, said Iran had started enriching uranium up to 20 percent at a fortified site. President Barack Obama signed a bill on Dec. 31 that tightens sanctions on Iran by denying access to the U.S. financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the Central Bank of Iran.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that sanctions alone are “not the answer.” Bildt, speaking to reporters before the meeting in Brussels today, said the EU needs to seek “diplomatic engagement” with the Iranian leadership. EU diplomats said the bloc would review the sanctions before May 1.
EU Companies
While the EU decision today will be binding on member states once taken, a separate regulation is needed for it to become binding on companies. The European Commission, the EU regulatory arm, is expected to come forward with a draft rule on that matter within days, according to an EU diplomat.
The U.S. and EU say Iran’s nuclear-development plans are aimed at building atomic weapons. The Islamic republic, the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia, is already under four rounds of UN sanctions and says its nuclear program is for energy and medical purposes, not weaponry.
An EU ban would apply to imports of Iranian oil, purchases out of Iran by EU companies to non-EU countries, transport of oil from Iran, as well as finance and insurance of oil contracts, according to an EU diplomat who declined to be identified, because the talks are confidential. The embargo requires unanimity among the bloc’s 27 states.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU must target both Iran’s oil and its central bank.
“There is only one solution: it’s a series of much harsher sanctions, much more decisive, that include an oil import ban by all and the freeze of central bank assets,” Sarkozy said in a speech to foreign diplomats in Paris on Jan. 20.
Sanctions Phase-In
Sarkozy had wanted the embargo to start in three months. Mediterranean countries that import much of their crude from Iran, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, had argued for sanctions to be phased in over as much as a year. The three countries accounted for about 68 percent of EU imports from Iran in 2010, European Commission data show.
Both Spain and Italy get 13 percent of their crude imports from Iran, according to the U.S.’s Energy Information Administration. The U.K. and Germany, which have also sought swifter sanctions, source only 1 percent of their oil imports from the Islamic republic, while France gets 4 percent.
The ban may include an exemption for Eni SpA (ENI), Italy’s biggest oil company, which says it is owed “under $2 billion” by Iran, diplomats said.
No New Contracts
Once the EU decision is made, member states would be barred from concluding new oil contracts with Iran or renewing those that are due to expire. As well as the four sets of UN sanctions, Iran is under additional U.S. and EU restrictions. The EU already embargoes equipment for and investment in Iran’s oil and natural gas industries. The bloc has also imposed restrictions on transfers of funds to and from Iran, a ban on cargo flights operated by Iranian carriers or coming from Iran and visa bans on 113 people linked to the nuclear program and Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said Jan. 21 that negotiations and not sanctions can resolve the standoff over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Iran Oil Earnings
Oil sales earned Iran $73 billion in 2010 and supplied more than 50 percent of the national budget and 80 percent of exports, according to the U.S. Energy Department and the International Monetary Fund. Iran produced 3.58 million barrels of crude a day in December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about 4 percent of global oil consumption.
OPEC producers have an “effective” spare crude-production capacity of 2.85 million barrels a day, the International Energy Agency said in a Jan. 18 report. Saudi Arabia’s spare capacity of 2.15 million barrels a day accounts for about 75 percent of the OPEC total, according to IEA estimates.
The IEA’s effective spare-capacity tally for OPEC excludes Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya. With those nations included, the figure rises to 3.8 million barrels a day.
The EU imported 14.5 billion euros ($18.7 billion) of goods from Iran, 90 percent of which was oil and related products, in 2010 and exported goods to the country worth 11.3 billion euros, the EU said in a Jan. 20 statement.
موندم اینا رو به ریال تبدیل کنم یا یوان خودم مایل به تبدیل به دلار نیستم چون نوسانات شدیدی داره به نظرتون یوان وضعش چه طوری میشه حالا اینم در نظر بگیرید احتمال بالا رفتن یوان وجود داشته باشه به دلیل تحریم ها 
