Greece is first EU country out of the gate to buy Iranian oil - Report
Greece, once a leading European customer of Iranian oil before the imposition of Western sanctions in 2012, will be the first European country to resume buying Iranian crude now that the sanctions have been lifted.
The country’s biggest oil refiner, Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE), will resume purchases of crude from the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC). The deal was announced after a meeting Friday between Mr Amir Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy oil minister for international affairs, and Greece’s deputy oil minister, Panos Skourletis, in Athens.
Deliveries will begin immediately under a “long-term agreement,” HELPE said in a statement, though it didn’t say how long that term would be. The refiner was one of Iran’s significant buyers of crude before the sanctions regime began in 2011, importing about 20 percent of its oil needs from the Islamic Republic. It owns three of Greece’s four oil refineries.
Shana, the news service of Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, said Greece also will settle debt to Iran in unpaid imports it ran up before the sanctions were imposed, forbidding it to pay arrears to Iran. That amounts to between $550 million and USD 600 million, although Platts estimates the debt at more like USD 755 million.
The sanctions were imposed as an incentive to help persuade Iran to strictly limit its nuclear program, which many in the West believed was aimed at developing a nuclear weapon. Iran said the program was meant for peaceful uses.
Tehran negotiated with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany and reached a deal on July 14 in Vienna. The sanctions were lifted on Jan. 16 once the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that Tehran had met the terms of the deal.
Source : oilprice.com