Europe Oil Stocks Sufficient to Cover Iran Cutoff

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED February 21, 2012

The European Union has sufficient oil stocks to do without Iranian crude oil supplies for four and a half years, European Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said on Monday.

The European Union said last month it would stop importing Iranian crude from July 1 in a bid to force Iran to agree to halt its nuclear program. Western powers suspect Iran of seeking to create a nuclear bomb but Tehran insists its program is peaceful.

EU countries are currently looking for a replacement for Iranian oil while Iran has threatened to cut oil supplies to Europe earlier than July.

Holzner said that if there were no other importers to replace Iran, EU oil stocks would suffice for a long period of time because Iranian supplies accounted for only 5.8 percent of Europe’s total crude imports.

Iran’s Oil Ministry announced on Sunday it had stopped oil exports to British and French companies. The ministry said in a statement on its website that Iran, OPEC's second biggest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, would sell oil to "new customers."

Topics: Europe, Iran

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