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Kilang minyak Iran (Reuters)
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VIVAnews - The Iranian government threatened to cut off their oil exports if the United States continues to impose economic sanctions on the country. The threat of Iran's potential to make world oil prices soared.
"If the sanctions are tightened, we will stop oil exports," said Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi during a visit to Dubai on Tuesday, October 23, 2012, reported Reuters.
U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran to force the country to stop Mullahs believed their nuclear program to build an atomic bomb. Iran denies it and says that nuclear reactors for medical and energy.
Iran exports had dropped to 1 million barrels per day after the U.S. tightened sanctions this year. Compare to last year, Iran can export more than 2.2 million barrels per day. Oil is also a major commodity Iran that include 80 percent of the country's exports.
Iran is the country's fourth-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait. Iran's position slipped from second place before disanksi U.S..
China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey are the countries major oil purchasers in Iran. If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government to stop their exports, declining world oil supply is feared that automatically make oil prices skyrocket.
Qasemi said that Iran is ready to live without the income from the oil if sanctions continue to apply. "So far we did not find any significant problems, but if the sanctions begin to trouble us, then we will run a 'plan B'," Qasemi said.
"If the sanctions continue, we will cut off oil exports to the world. We hope this does not happen, because people can suffer, we do not want the people of America and the European clay distress," he added.
Iran, says Qasemi still produces four million barrels of oil per day. His comments at the same time denied the OPEC report said that Iran's production fell 2.72 million barrels per day in September. (umi)
