Iran says export ban will hike oil price to $150

TEHRAN, Feb. 21 (MNA) – National Iranian Oil Company’s managing director predicted that international spot price for oil will jump to $150 per barrel due to Iran’s plan to suspend exports to some European states. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday, the NIOC head Ahmad Qalebani added that Iran had informed European buyers that in future they would need to ink 3-5 year contracts with Iran. He referred to the suspension of oil exports to Britain and France, adding that if Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Italy and Portugal continue their bellicose attitudes toward the Islamic Republic, Iran will also cut oil exports to them. Iranian Oil Ministry spokesperson Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar announced on Sunday that crude exports to British and French companies have been halted. The Iranian parliament has prepared a plan calling for a halt to Iran’s oil exports to the European Union states that voted for sanctions on the country’s oil industry, which will reportedly be discussed in the parliament after Iran’s next parliamentary election, which is scheduled to be held on March 2. Hassan Tajik, the director of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Western Europe Department, held separate meetings with the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands, and France on February 15, in which a range of issues, including the oil embargo, were discussed. “We have made efforts to… inform the European people of the fact that European governments themselves will be responsible for the consequences of the decision,” Tajik said at the time.