2010-10-01 10:08:29
Four major energy companies are pulling out of Iran in order to comply with US sanctions, the state department says.
Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Statoil and Italy ENI will now avoid US penalties targeting companies which do business with Iran.
Naftiran Intertrade Co, based in Switzerland, will face new sanctions .
The US has tightened sanctions on Iran over concerns about its nuclear ambitions, which Washington fears are aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes.
'Conduit for cash'
Recent legislation gives the US administration the power to penalise foreign companies which invest more than $20m ($12.7m) in Iran's energy sector.
However, companies taking steps to comply with the law are exempted from penalties.
"People are increasingly reaching the conclusion that it's simply not worth it to engage in activities with Iran," Deputy US Secretary of State James Steinberg was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Other energy companies are under investigation for possibly breaching sanctions, but the state department has declined to name them.
Mr Steinberg described Naftiran - a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company - as a key conduit for cash into the Iranian oil industry.
In practice, US companies are already prohibited from doing most forms of business with Naftiran. But US officials say the extra sanctions will dissuade non-US companies from doing business with it.
This latest announcement comes a day after the US froze the US assets of eight senior Iranian officials accused of serious human rights abuses following the disputed presidential election in June 2009. They will also barred from travelling to the US and from doing business with companies there.
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Posted: 2010750@246.80
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stranger
European oil firms resist U.S. pressure to quit Iran
By Wojciech Moskwa Wojciech Moskwa Fri Oct 1, 1:28 pm ET
OSLO (Reuters) European oil majors resisted pressure from the United States on Friday to stop doing business with Iran, in spite of Washington's drive to isolate Tehran over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
Total said it was still buying Iranian crude as it was not illegal under new U.N. sanctions, Statoil said it was providing Iran with technical assistance and ENI said it would exit Iran only when existing deals expire.
The United States had said on Thursday that all three, as well as Royal Dutch Shell, would abandon their Iranian activities voluntarily to avoid U.S. sanctions which can target foreign firms that do business with the Islamic state.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said on Thursday the companies "have provided assurances to us" that they have stopped or are in process of stopping activity in Iran and would not undertake new deals that may be sanctionable.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and one of its largest proven reserves of oil, but Western energy companies have halted or scaled down their operations in the country due to the escalating nuclear dispute.
Tougher sanctions on Iran in recent months have raised the stakes for international oil firms while "also increasing the sense that the worsening of Iran's operational environment is irreversible", the IHS Global Insight consultancy said.
The former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspections worldwide said Iran was making "slow but steady" progress on its nuclear program and he believed there was still time to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
"They are making progress, but I think there is still time for a negotiated solution," Olli Heinonen, who quit in August and now teaches at Harvard University, told Reuters.
NUCLEAR CURB
Major powers hope new U.N., U.S. and European sanctions, imposed on Iran since June, will persuade it to enter serious negotiations on curbing its nuclear development.
Iran has repeatedly ruled out stopping nuclear enrichment and dismissed the impact of punitive measures, while leaving the door open for talks which may resume soon.
In a move partly intended to make it less vulnerable to sanctions, Iran plans to cut hefty food and fuel subsidies and a government official said in Tehran on Friday that gasoline prices will rise sharply in the coming weeks.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to phase out $100 billion of subsidies, a policy economists say is a necessary but politically risky step.
In Tokyo, Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata said Japan's top oil explorer Inpex Corp may pull out of an oilfield project in Iran, a move that would see it join other global energy firms shunning the country.
A Total spokeswoman said the latest European sanctions "will keep to a minimum our activities" in Iran. But she said Total had not cut back its activities in the country since it said earlier this year it would halt the sale of refined products.
Statoil said it would conclude work in Iran by 2012 at the latest but was still providing technical assistance after finishing development of three phases of the South Pars natural gas project last year.
"Already in 2008 we said that we would not make further investments in Iran," spokesman Baard Glad Pedersen said.
Shell said it was complying with all legislation while declining to comment on its trading activities. Traders say it is still involved in Iranian crude purchases. "As you know, it is not illegal to lift oil from Iran," a Shell spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Lionel Laurent in Paris and by Robin Pomeroy in Tehran; Writing and additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Louise Ireland)