“We do not have even one crude oil barrel without customer in the Persian Gulf region at present,” Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar said on Saturday, adding that there is no Iranian crude oil saved in oil tankers.
The Iranian official stated that Iran’s oil export is currently in “normal conditions.” The country succeeded in managing the oil market despite international restrictions, he added.
Nikzad-Rahbar said Iran had signed long-term contracts with China on crude oil exports.
In December 2012, China’s state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp announced plans to continue crude oil imports from Iran at a steady volume for the next year in defiance of the US-led sanctions against Tehran.
Chinese trading officials said that the Beijing-based company would keep importing around 230,000 bpd (barrels per day) of Iranian crude in 2013.
China is Iran’s top trade partner.
Beijing has also publicly criticized the US-led sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear energy program.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
On October 15, 2012, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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