Iranian oil minister warns of halting oil exports to Europe

TEHRAN, April 21(MNA) --Iran's oil minister on Thursday raised the prospect of more cutoffs in oil sales to the European Union if the bloc failed to show some flexibility toward Iran ahead of a second round of nuclear talks next month. Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that while Iran has cut sales to Britain and France, it continues selling crude to "other countries" in the world. Iran first imposed the oil embargoes on Britain and France in February and in April, it said oil sales were cut to Greece and Spain as well. The measures were meant as pre-emptive retaliation ahead of an EU oil embargo that is due to go into effect in July. Qasemi said that if sanctions imposed by the 27-nation bloc were not lifted by the next round of nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, then "we will surely cut oil to Europe." "We are hopeful that they will lift sanctions on Iran's oil," said Qasemi. "What we have officially cut is crude export to Britain and France. The oil sale to other countries has continued”, AP reported. Iran halts oil sales to to Total, Shell Iran has halted sales of crude oil to France’s Total and Britain’s Shell, as they failed to pay outstanding dues to the Islamic Republic. Royal Dutch Shell and Total are facing problems in paying for Iranian oil that they bought. Shell owes $1 billion to Iran for crude oil, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said. The oil giant owes a huge amount to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) against deliveries of around 8 million barrels. Shell wants to abide by sanctions while remaining on good terms with Iran, OPEC’s second biggest exporter. Shell is trying to find a means to pay NIOC. Shell was the second biggest corporate client of Iran, purchasing an average of 100,000 barrels each day. On January 23, The European Union banned Iranian oil imports, however allowed companies to wind up their existing dealings with Iran before July 1. SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, cut off Iranian banks on March 17. SWIFT's move followed a decision by the European Union Council, which represents EU member states, to tighten asset freezes on a number of people and entities associated with Iran's nuclear activities . Iran gives Chinese CNPC a month to start South Pars project Iranian Oil Minister has also warned the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) that it must start work on phase 11 of the South Pars gas field within a month or the deal will be canceled. CNPC has frequently delayed starting the development plan of Phase 11 of South Pars gas field, although the deal was signed 27 months ago, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company said in October last year. Mousa Souri added: “Iran is dissatisfied with CNPC's frequent delaying of Phase 11 of South Pars development.” CNPC won a $4.7 billion contract to develop Phase 11 of the South Pars gas project in 2009. The Chinese company replaced Total SA, which had hesitated because of political concerns. The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.