EU states importing Iranian oil despite US sanctions

Three European Union (EU) countries imported oil from Iran in 2022 despite US sanctions that impose penalties on governments and entities involved in energy trade with Iran.

Figures by EU’s statistics agency Eurostat covered in a Sunday report by IRNA showed that the bloc’s imports of crude oil from Iran had reached 4,181 metric tons (mt) last year.

EU importers of Iranian oil shipments were Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, according to the Eurostat figures which indicated that over 4,000 mt of the shipments ended up in Romania.

The figures showed that Bulgaria was the latest EU country to start oil imports from Iran since 2018 when the United States imposed its sanctions on Tehran.

Bulgaria took delivery of a 168 mt of oil from Iran in December and continued imports in January this year by receiving an 83-mt shipment.

The IRNA said in its report that EU’s imports of Iranian oil, although very small in amount, is a sign that European countries tend to ignore the US sanctions on Iran amid a crunch in global energy markets that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

The report said the fact that an EU agency has mentioned Iranian oil imports in its official figures shows that the bloc wants to signal its dissatisfaction with US policy of keeping sanctions on Iran.  

Washington imposed sanctions on Iran in early 2018 after the former US administration decided to unilaterally withdraw from an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

ME