Page 5 - IRANRptMay19

2.0 Politics
2.1 US use of oil sanctions “as a weapon” causing “death
and collapse of OPEC” says Iran’s oil minister
Iran’s oil minister has warned the use of oil sanctions “as a weapon” by the US is causing the “death and collapse of OPEC”, SHANA, the news outlet of the Iranian oil ministry, reported on May 1.
The advent of May sees the start of a Trump administration campaign to try and drive Iranian crude oil exports down to zero by threatening to sanction anyone who dares cross Washington by continuing to take shipments. On April 22, US President Donald Trump announced his administration was ending exemptions from sanctions for countries still buying oil from the Islamic Republic.Trump said waivers for China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey would expire in May. Three other waiver holders, Greece, Italy and Taiwan, have already stopped importing Iranian oil.
Meanwhile, Venezuela, which like Iran is an OPEC founding member, is facing US sanctions applied to its oil exports as the White House supports efforts to achieve regime change in that country.
“Those who use oil as a weapon against two founding members of OPEC are disturbing the unity of OPEC and creating the death and collapse of OPEC and the responsibility for that is with them,” Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying in a speech at an oil and gas conference in Tehran.
Oil markets have tightened this year due to supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The White House has said that in line with its unprecedented move against Iranian oil exports it is counting on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ensure oil markets are “adequately supplied”.
The US will not be able to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero and the Islamic Republic’s neighbours are exaggerating claims of their oil production capacity that could make up for any shortfall, Zanganeh reportedly added.
Separately, Zanganeh said that Iran’s gas output will cross 1,000mn cubic metres (mcm) this calendar year, the oil ministry stated on its Twitter account.
OPEC and its allies next meet in June to decide on any supply changes. The producer group’s supply cuts have been aimed largely at offsetting record crude production in the US.
2.2 Iran launches trade mechanism designed to cooperate with Europe’s ‘sanctions-avoiding’ Instex
Iran has officially launched a company designed to provide a counter-party mechanism to the trading vehicle European countries have set up to offer companies a method for continuing to do business with Iranian entities despite US sanctions, IRNA reported on April 30.
5 IRAN Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com