TEHRAN, Jan 29, (Agencies): Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions on Sunday, vowing to stop oil exports soon to “some” countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to such sales to the European Union.
The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by UN nuclear experts that began on Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be “professional” or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will seek to advance efforts to resolve a row about nuclear work which Iran says is for making electricity but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.
Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union (EU) imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC’s second biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.
In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran’s oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to “some” countries.
Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU’s 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1.
“Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
Iranian lawmakers had been due to debate a bill on Sunday that could have cut off oil supplies to the EU in days, in a move calculated to hit ailing European economies before the EU-wide ban on took effect.
But Iranian MPs postponed discussing the measure.
“No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end,” Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament’s Energy Committee, told Mehr.
Iranian officials say sanctions have had no impact on the country.
“Iranian oil has its own market, even if we cut our exports to Europe,” oil minister Qasemi said.
Another lawmaker, Mohammad Karim Abedi, said the bill would oblige the government to cut Iran’s oil supplies to the European Union for five to 15 years, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil — including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe — to adapt.
The Mehr news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: “We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation’s visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit.”
“We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities.”
Striking a sterner tone, Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a “logical, professional and technical” job or suffer the consequences.
“This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally,” said Larijani, state media reported.
“Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency.”
Iran’s parliament in the past has approved bills to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran’s top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body.
Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped the Islamic state would tackle the watchdog’s concerns “regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.”
The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late on Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy’s Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.
Barrel
The head of Iran’s state oil company said Sunday that the price of crude will reach $120 to $150 per barrel, as officials in Tehran prepare to discuss a ban on crude sales to European Union countries in retaliation for an EU embargo.
Head of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Qalehbani also said that Tehran would expand its capacity to refine crude domestically, instead of selling it on international markets.
Iran says the EU accounts for only 18 percent of its output and that it can find new customers. It says the embargo will hurt the West more than Iran, in part by causing a spike in prices.
“It seems we will witness prices from $120 to $150 in the future,” Qalehbani was quoted as saying by IRNA. He did not give a time frame for the prediction, nor any other details.
The price of benchmark US crude on Friday was around $99.56 per barrel.
Qalehbani also said that Iran could find other customers for its crude in the short term, while in the longer term expanding its refining capacity to turn the crude into other petroleum products.
“The sale of some 18 percent of Iranian oil, to a market other than the EU, is quite possible. But our long term idea is to increase refining capacities to produce valuable products,” he said.
Qalehbani’s statement came as Iranian oil officials prepare to debate a ban on crude sales to European Union countries.
Meanwhile, Iran’s gasoline consumption is falling rapidly thanks to higher prices and compressed natural gas (CNG) use, according to the Iranian oil ministry, helping soften the blow of Western sanctions that ban fuel sales to the Islamic Republic.
Western governments have blocked gasoline supplies to Iran over the last few years to pressure Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme.
But Iran has succeeded in significantly reducing its reliance on gasoline by tapping the world’s second largest natural gas reserves to make CNG and slashing subsidies to discourage gasoline use.
As a result, Iran’s gasoline consumption fell to 55.8 million liters a day in the period from Dec 22, 2011 to Jan 20, 2012, down from 58.3 million litres per day during the same period a year earlier, oil ministry website Shana said, citing National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company data.
Until 2007, Iran’s inadequate refinery infrastructure and rising demand made it increasingly dependent on imported gasoline - a vulnerability Western powers led by Washington targeted by banning companies from selling it fuel.
Tehran responded by slashing fuel subsidies and rationing gasoline to discourage long trips by car, while fitting vehicles with dual fuel systems and building CNG pump stations to make use of its vast gas reserves.
As a result, the share of imports in Iran’s gasoline supplies has dipped from around 40 percent to less than 5 percent, according to Iranian government data, putting pressure on Western allies to find new ways to squeeze Tehran over what they suspect is a nuclear weapons programme but which Iran says is only about energy.
With Iran having largely neutralized fuel sanctions, Washington - which has long since banned all US companies from any Iranian oil deals — has increasingly tried to stem the flow of crude oil sales funds to Tehran.
The European Union agreed last week to ban its companies from buying any Iranian oil from July, but Iranian lawmakers look set to preemptively ban oil exports to Europe immediately in a vote planned for Sunday.