Europe Folds Like a Cheap Suit – Winds Down Import of Iranian Oil

This didn’t take long now did it? Europe huffs and puffs.The media are so sure that Trump is wrecking our important relationships with our allies across the pond.

This as we just celebrated D-Day when we gave up our precious treasure of blood and life of our  young men for them. And Germany? What penance are you willing to give to us for us having to shed blood twice last century for your attempt at self-aggrandizement.

Even today, we pay for Europe’s security and now we ask you all to kick into the kitty by engaging in FAIR trade with us. So we want Europe’s support in fixing the feckless Iranian deal. After much bluster it looks like they are caving like a cheap suit:

After an initial hesitance over how the returning U.S. sanctions will affect Iran’s oil buyers, European refiners are beginning to wind down purchases from Iran after tanker providers, insurers, and banks began to shun Iranian deals and destinations for fear of exposing themselves to secondary sanctions.

Several large European companies in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece are reportedly admitting that they won’t risk U.S. sanctions and are unable to find tankers and insurer providers willing to facilitate shipments of Iranian oil to Europe, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing company and trading sources.

Iran’s total oil exports have averaged around 2.5 million bpd in recent months, peaking in April, just before the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Iran says that its May oil exports were higher than this year’s average, but it now looks like European refiners are choosing not to risk and have started to figure out ways to wind down Iranian oil purchases.

Iran’s oil exports to Europe account for around one-fifth of the total, while most of the Iranian crude goes to China and to India.

“We cannot defy the United States,” a senior source at Italy’s Saras, which operates a 300,000-bpd refinery on the island of Sardinia, told Reuters.

“It is not clear yet what the U.S. administration can do but in practice we can get into trouble,” the source noted.

A drop in crude trading between Iran and Europe could complicate efforts by the European signatories of the nuclear deal – France, Germany and Britain – to salvage the agreement.

Refiners including France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Saras, Spain’s Repsol and Cepsa as well as Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum are preparing to halt purchases of Iranian oil once sanctions bite, the sources said.

H/T: Oilprice.com