In November 2014 Iranian oil export to the Asian market totaled at least 1 million barrels a day, which is the lowest index in 2014.
Iran exports 878,088 barrels of oil a day to its main oil buyers – China, India, Japan and South Korea, though from January to October 2014 this index totaled 1.1 million barrels.
Representatives of the Iranian Oil Ministry claim that reduction of oil export volume is connected with fluctuation of demand, though independent observers in Tehran believe that export decline is caused by loss of the markets after the economic sanctions applied by the West against Iran.
Experts believe that plans of the Oil Ministry’s officials to increase oil export to the international markets within a short period of time are unfeasible, because they simply cannot find the buyers. The remaining oil exporting countries, which suffer losses from oil price decline, will not let Iran to cause another slump of prices.
Independent sources said that the Iranian administration believes that growth of Iranian oil export, which is encouraged by President Khasan Roukhani’s entourage, will not be able to cover damage from the effective sanctions and will not bring sufficient funds to upgrade the country’s economy. Increase in oil export can also provoke a serious conflict between Iran and OPEC.
According to released data, last month Iran extracted 2.83 million barrels of oil a day. This is down 3.6 million barrels, which the country extracted every day before applications of THE sanctions.