Iran’s Oil Revenues Increased by Almost 50% Despite Sanctions - Reports

16:05 GMT, 11 February 2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Tehran’s revenue from oil exports in the first nine months of the current Iranian year — which runs from 21 March 2018 to 20 March 2019 — have increased by 48.9 percent year-on-year despite the reimposition of US sanctions, the IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

Sputnik

According to the IRNA, the main reason for the increase in revenue was the oil price hike in the global markets.

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Iran's oil revenues from the said period amounted to over $17 billion, according to the agency.

However, the demand for oil has recently dropped from $80 per barrel to $50 against the background of the trade war between the United States and China as well as oversupply on the oil market.

The reports come after in May 2018 the United States announced its unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions. Later that year, two packages of sanctions came into effect with the aim of forcing Tehran to negotiate a new agreement. Washington's decision was not supported by other signatories to the deal — China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — which insisted on Tehran’s compliance with the deal.

The US restrictions include measures that curb Iran's oil industry. Only eight nations — China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey — received temporary exemptions from the sanctions on importing oil from Iran.