[[{“value”:”
- Trafigura Head of Trading: U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis Iran is the main upside risk for oil.
- Last year, Trump pledged in his Republican National Convention speech to dramatically lower Iranian oil exports.
- On Tuesday, the Trump administration imposed further sanctions on more than 30 people and vessels for selling and transporting Iranian petroleum-related products.
Trafigura Group’s head of oil trading Ben Luckock has named U.S. foreign policy towards Iran as the biggest upside risk to crude prices in an otherwise well-supplied market.“The two big unknowns are – how is the US going to deal with it’s trade issue with China and then how is the US going to deal with Iran and I think the Iranian one is the one that we need to watch out for,” Luckock said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “You may find that pressure on Iran backs it into a corner and then we have to be careful.”
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump’s first sanctions against Iran targeted 3 vessels carrying Iranian crude to China. The sanctions affected one very-large crude carrier (VLCC) and two Aframaxes that the Treasury Department said helped move Iranian oil to China. They also targeted several entities and individuals across different countries involved in the trade, on behalf of Tehran’s Armed Forces General Staff and its sanctioned front company, Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars. On Tuesday, the Trump administration imposed further sanctions on more than 30 people and vessels for selling and transporting Iranian petroleum-related products as part of the country’s”shadow fleet”. The latest sanctions target tanker operators and managers in India and China; oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong and the head of Iran’s National Iranian Oil Company.
Last year, Trump pledged in his Republican National Convention speech to dramatically lower Iranian oil exports, saying he previously achieved this by linking it to trade; “I told China and other countries, if you buy from Iran, we will not let you do any business in this country and we will put tariffs on every product you do send in of 100% or more.”China has been importing Iranian oil indirectly via proxies. According to multiple media sources, the transfers involve a dark fleet consisting of a group of aging tankers that rarely have an identifiable insurer. These transfers can be hazardous, including the danger of spills and collisions, with so many low-quality tankers massed in a narrow trade route with their transponders off.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
The post Trafigura: Iran Sanctions Are Biggest Bullish Catalyst On Oil Prices appeared first on Energy News Beat.
“}]]
Energy News Beat