Iran prevented from giving oil aid to US by sanctions: Kazempour

Tehran (Platts)--7Sep2005

US sanctions on Iran have prevented the Islamic Republic from giving oil
aid to the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a senior
Iranian oil official said Wednesday.

     "If the US economic sanctions against Iran did not exist, and if there
was no barrier for Iran's crude oil to enter the US market, we could be able
to supply between 10-mil and 20-mil barrels of oil as aid," said Iran's OPEC
governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, quoted by oil ministry news agency Shana.

     The US imposed sanctions on Iran after the 1979 seizure of the American
embassy in Tehran and 444-day hostage crisis. President George W. Bush in 2002
described Iran as part of an "axis of evil," along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq
and North Korea.

     Washington temporarily relaxed these sanctions after Iraq's August 1990
invasion of Kuwait, fearing oil shortages.

     In the mid-1990s, the US introduced extra-territorial legislation aimed
at punishing non-US oil companies investing in Iran's oil and gas sector. The
legislation, known as the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, has yet to be implemented
against any foreign company.

     "US moves to establish economic sanctions and different pressures against
the Islamic Republic of Iran is the main impediment to Iran's aid," Kazempour
said. "If the US removes the sanctions, the barrier will be removed too."
     The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 industrialized
countries, last week announced a plan to tap members' emergency oil stockpiles
to ease supply shortages.

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