Iran’s Oil Minister has announced that the country has stopped selling crude to Greece.
Rostam Ghassemi told IRNA this morning that Iran has stopped selling oil to a number of European countries, adding that Greece no longer receives any oil from Iran.
Iran announced in recent days that it stopped exporting oil to two Greek companies because they have failed to pay their bills.
Ghassemi said today Iran has halted exports to Greece because the two countries have failed to reach an agreement.
After the EU announced that it would impose an embargo on Iranian oil effective July 2012, Iran responded that it would retaliate by cutting off its European customers before that date.
Iran has already announced a halt to oil sales to France and the UK, but Iran’s main customers in Europe are Italy, Spain and Greece.
Ghassemi said today: “European sanctions on Iranian oil have been in effect for years and, fortunately, they have minimal effect on Iran’s oil industry and will not halt progress in this sector.”
JP Morgan has predicted, however, that Iran’s oil exports will have fallen by one million barrels a day by the end of June.
The sanctions on Iranian oil are a reaction to the disputes over Iran’s nuclear program.
The West wants Iran to halt uranium enrichment, but Iran says that its nuclear program is peaceful and it has a right to enrich uranium to provide fuel for its nuclear reactors.
