US sanctions unlikely to impact Iran’s petrochemical sales to Europe

24-Nov-11

The fresh sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical sector will not stop it selling to European markets but would push up global market prices and generate more export revenues, as per Fars news agency. "(Sanctions) will certainly lead to an increase in the price of petrochemical products in the global markets and it might unwillingly be a significant contribution to our foreign exchange revenues because Iran will never lose its target markets," Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat told Fars. These comments came after Western states turned up pressure on Tehran to stop its nuclear program which they suspect is aimed at making an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies. The new measures target, among other things, Iran's US$8 bln petrochemicals trade. Also, the new sanctions may not succeed in stopping Iran exporting petrochemicals to the European Union as the NIPO was not on the EU's sanctions blacklist. Iran's alternatives include confrontation of those countries that impose sanctions or to circumvent them.