Tag Archives: Oil Market

May 3 2012

‘Saudi Arabia unable to make up for absence of Iran oil’

Iran ranks first in the world in terms of oil and gas resources.

A senior National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) official says Saudi Arabia will not be able to make up for the absence of Iran’s oil in the European markets if Iran halts EU oil exports.

“I announce with certainty that [crude oil produced by] Saudi Arabia cannot take the place of Iranian oil in the global market,” Seyyed Mohsen Qamsari, NIOC director general for international affairs, said Wednesday.

On January 23, EU foreign ministers reached an agreement in Brussels to impose sanctions on oil imports from Iran as of July 1 over Western claims that Tehran’s nuclear energy program contains a military aspect. The sanctions involve an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with the Islamic Republic and a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran within the EU.

Ahead of the EU decision, Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi had said that the Kingdom is able to produce 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. Riyadh is currently producing around 9-9.5 million bpd.

Naimi stressed that Saudi Arabia is ready to meet the increase in the global demand as a result of “any circumstances.”  Continue reading →