US sanctions against Iran's energy sector will hardly be able to disrupt the country's oil exports, Iranian state television quoted an adviser to the nation’s oil minister as saying on Tuesday.
"Considering the high demand and low supply in the market, America's sanctions cannot drop Iran's oil sales to zero… Other oil producers cannot replace Iran's oil," said Moayyed Hosseini Sadr, an adviser to Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh.
On August, the head of the international office of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF), Andrey Yu, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that "China doesn’t pay attention to the US sanctions on Iran" and would continue to buy oil and gas from Tehran.
IRNA's publication came three days after Bloomberg reported, citing an official, that the state-run National Iranian Oil Company had lowered prices for September oil sales to Asia to their lowest level in 14 years in comparison to the price of Saudi Arabian oil.
Earlier in August, the Chinese energy giant China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) took over the shares of the French company Total in an Iranian project involving the South Pars gas field.
In May, US President Donald Trump said he was withdrawing the US from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Washington also warned countries to stop buying Iranian oil from November 4 and threatened to use sanctions against foreign parties that failed to comply with the unilateral re-imposition of restrictions.
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The first stage of the US sanctions on Iran took effect on August 6, targeting the country’s automotive sector, trade in gold, and other vital metals.
The remaining sanctions will be put in place on November 4, targeting Tehran’s energy sector, petroleum-based transactions, and transactions with Iran’s Central Bank.
