Ahmadinejad says Iran can survive without selling oil for years

Tehran (Platts)--10Apr2012/732 am EDT/1132 GMT

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran had enough foreign currency reserves that it could survive without selling a single barrel of oil for three years.

"They [the West] want to impose sanctions on our oil. This is while, foreign currency-wise, we have so much foreign currency that even if we don't sell even a barrel of oil in three years, the country will be run properly," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state television's website.

"The enemies' conspiracy will be neutralized by their own hand," the president said in an address in the southern province of Hormozgan.

Ahmadinejad was referring to sanctions against Iran imposed by the international community over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program. A European Union embargo on Iranian oil imports is due to come into effect on July 1 but is already having an impact on the OPEC state's oil exports as several European companies have already halted imports.

US sanctions against Iran's central bank have also had an impact of volumes of sales into Asia. Japan, one of the biggest buyers of Iranian crude oil has already secured a waiver from Washington in return for reducing its imports of Iranian oil.

However, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi said in separate remarks Tuesday that oil exports have not been affected by the EU sanctions though he admitted that exports to Greece had been halted, official news agency IRNA reported.

"The European sanctions have been in effect for years and there is no problem now with selling Iran's oil and oil products either," Ghasemi was quoted as saying.

"Iran's oil is good and economically of high value. This oil will not remain on the market's shelves."

Ghasemi said Iran currently was no longer selling crude oil to Greece, which previously received preferential terms from Iran for crude oil purchases, though there was no final agreement on the issue.

A Greek industry source said last week that refiner Hellenic Petroleum had had to replace its contract supplies of Iranian crude in April with alternative supplies because of difficulties in routing payment to Iran and finding vessels willing to lift the oil.

Hellenic had been expected to import two or three cargoes of Iranian crude in April under its term contract with the National Iranian Oil Company, but instead the company has bought cargoes of Russian sour crude Urals, as well as other sour barrels, to replace them, the source said.

Greece was among 10 European countries exempted last month from US financial sanctions in return for having reduced its purchases of Iranian oil, but the source said that although the exemption meant that purchases from Iran could continue at lower levels the combination of payment and shipping issues made it difficult for the country to take any Iranian oil.

--Aresu Eqbali, newsdesk@platts.com

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