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Iran ranks 5th in exporting crude oil to Europe

09 March 2011 [19:42] - TODAY.AZ
The volume of Iran's oil exports to the EU member states increased to 41 percent in 2010 despite the western sanctions and the extra embargos imposed by the EU against the country, a report said.

According to a report citing Eurostat website, the recent statistical figures show that the value of Iran's crude oil exports to the EU was worth 11.44 billion euro in 2010, while the value of the country's oil exports to 27 EU members in 2009 amounted only to 8.11 billion euro.

The report also mentioned that while Iran supplied 4.8% of the EU's oil needs in 2009, the figure raised to 5.2% in 2010.

According to the report, the EU boosted its oil imports from a total 168 billion euro in 2009 to 220 billion euro in 2010.

Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes of providing energy, but many other countries contend that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and last June the Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against it, citing the proliferation risks of its nuclear programme and its continued failure to cooperate with the IAEA.

Resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, as well as additional unilateral sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress and the foreign ministers of all EU countries, were primarily directed against the banking, financial and energy sectors of Iran.

Restrictions imposed by the EU include the ban on the sale of equipment, technologies and services to Iran's energy sector; the same measure refers to the refining industry. New investments in Iran's energy sector have also been also prohibited as a whole. Because of lack of investments due to the sanctions, the production capacity is decreasing, and therefore, Iran cannot effectively increase production.

Iran, which sits on the world's second largest reserves of both oil and gas, has dismissed US sanctions as inefficient, saying that it is finding Asian partners instead. Several Chinese and other Asian firms are negotiating or signing up to oil and gas deals.

Iranian officials have always stressed that the International and unilateral sanctions against Iran have had no result but inflicting damage on the European companies.


/Trend/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/82241.html

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