Rosneft CEO: US may make exclusions in anti-Iranian sanctions

VERONA, Italy, Oct 25 (PRIME) -- The U.S. may incorporate exclusions for some of its partners into the anti-Iranian sanctions, Russian oil major Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said at the Eurasian Economic Forum on Thursday.

“We will see the U.S. sanctions against Iran in operation in 10 days. However, basing on the oil market dynamics, I would assume that implementation of the sanctions will provide a number of exclusions for partners of the U.S.,” he said.

If the European companies stop working with Iran, including oil imports from November 5, the E.U. economy may get hurt significantly, he added.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington would quit the Iranian nuclear deal and would resume sanctions against the country, one of the world’s largest oil producers.

Sechin also said that around 30% of the world’s oil reserves and 20% of production has been exposed to the sanctions, an anti-record, with political restrictions becoming a routine tool of a single state, but not of the global community.

“The U.S. share of the harm from their sanctions amounts to only 0.6%, while Germany’s share is 40%. The U.S. economy has pragmatically benefitted from sanctions against other countries in some sectors, including shale oil production and arms exports. The question is whether this is a simple form of support of local producers on behalf of the world community.”

The U.S. gets the feel of a global oil market regulator driven by non-market opportunistic goals and using non-market methods, the CEO said.

OPEC decreased its share on the world’s crude in favor of the U.S.-produced shale oil.

“OPEC+ had reduced its crude output by 2 million barrels per day before April 2017 while the U.S. shale projects… jumped by 2.2 million barrels per day.”

The U.S. intends to become a large oil exporter, and the US-PEC construction has actually appeared instead of OPEC.

The present crude prices are comfortable for Rosneft and reflect supply and demand balance, Sechin said, but added that the price may surge on the back of geopolitical factors, which is unprofitable for both the suppliers and the consumers.

Sechin also said that Rosneft sees huge prospects of joint projects with ExxonMobil of the shelf of Mozambique.

He also believes that the planned initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco will be a success.

End