EU official: Spain, Italy to import Iran's oil till September

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 27 /Trend S.Isayev, D. Khatinoglu/ Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni were given permission to continue importing Iran's oil up until mid September, EU official who wished to remain anonymous told Trend. On June 1, Reuters reported that Italy's Eni which has been receiving payments in oil from Iran for debts, is reworking the deal and is unlikely to import crude in July after European Union sanctions on Tehran take effect. Eni's chief executive Paolo Scaroni had said in March that Iran still owed the company $1.0-1.4 billion worth of oil, and that it had a special exemption enabling it to continue receiving that crude despite the EU embargo. Spain's biggest refiner, Repsol, has repeatedly declined to comment on details of its oil purchases, but in February the government said the country's two biggest oil companies had arranged to switch imports from Iran to Saudi Arabia, Russia and, to a lesser extent, Iraq. Repsol has the capacity to refine 890,000 barrels per day. Reportedly Iran owes Repsol some $600 million worth of oil. Both Eni and Repsol will continue to import Iran's oil only to close the remaining debts they have with the Islamic Republic. Last year, EU countries daily imported an average of 450,000 bpd from Iran. After the July 1 embargo will cut down the imports from Iran, and will no longer provide insurances and re-insurances for tankers that carry oil from Iran. The EU joined the United States in imposing a total ban on imports of Iranian oil to pressure Tehran over its nuclear programme that the West suspects may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Tehran says its research is for peaceful purposes. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az