Europe Days From Lifting Reinsurance Ban on Iran Oil Exports
By Alaric Nightingale and James G. Neuger - Jan 16, 2014
Europe is days from suspending a ban on reinsuring tankers hauling Iranian oil, a measure that helped cut the nation’s crude exports by more than 50 percent when it was implemented.
The six-month relaxation starts Jan. 20 and will allow companies following European Union law to reinsure tankers shipping Iran’s oil to India, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan, an EU official told reporters in Brussels today, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name. The step affects most of the world fleet because 90 percent of all merchant vessels are covered by members of the London-based International Group of P&I Clubs.
Iran’s oil exports plunged to about 1 million barrels a day last year from 2.5 million before sanctions started in 2012, according to the White House. The plan to ease the reinsurance ban was agreed in November, following negotiations between Iran and world powers seeking to curb the nation’s nuclear program. European companies are still barred from purchasing Iranian oil and the accord in Geneva doesn’t allow the Persian Gulf state to boost exports.
“Countries that were finding it difficult to lift their existing quotas of oil will be able to lift the oil that they are permitted to lift easily,” Abhishek Deshpande, an analyst at Natixis SA in London, said by e-mail. Still, buyer states must avoid increasing imports so that they don’t breach U.S. rules that remain in force, he said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/europe-days-from-suspending-ban-on-reinsuring-iran-oil-shipments.html
