Tuesday, June 26, 2012

South Korea to Halt Iran Oil Imports

EU Bans Insuring Tankers Carrying Iranian Crude Effective 1 July

South Korea became the first major Asian consumer of Iranian crude to suspend its imports starting July 1. The government announced that the move was in response to a EU ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil. Iran supplied more than 9 percent of South Korea’s crude in 2011, its fourth largest customer. (Reuters)

The South Korean decision to halt all crude shipments from Iran differs from strategies chosen by Japan, India and China. In the Japanese case, the government has offered state guarantees to its refiners importing uninsured crude shipments from Iran, practically insuring the shipments. India and China, the other two major Asian importers, will allow Iran to deliver the crude by its own tankers with the shipments insured through Iranian government-owned companies.

Japan, India and South Korea have been granted temporary waiver from U.S. sanctions because they each have reduced their current oil imports from Iran by at least 20 percent. China, the largest importer of the four, has not reduced its imports and has not recognized the legality of the U.S. imposed sanctions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's ironic since there are so many LG stores in Tehran, at least the last time I went in 2009.

hans said...

Iran has an ace up it's sleeve, I say watch the Rial, it probably will be the most valuable currency when it is pegged to Gold. It takes only about $20B to crash the US economy. Crash JP Morgan Chase which currently is extremely vulnerable, and you crash the Ponzi Fed, Iran knows it.

Anonymous said...

@hans

Go on be a man and go and change your American dollars for worthless Iranian rials!
$20 Billion wouldn't buy zips required by the US armed forces.

hans said...

@anon June 26, 2012 3:54 PM

It is derivatives my anon not hard cash. I think JP Morgan chase owes $53 TRILLION which can never be paid, to crash them which in turn will crash the FED. Watch what is going to happen. Iran is a very rich country has good cash reserve and best of all it has commodities. It is no Ponzi country!