EU Has No Alternative To Replace Iran Oil: Energy Analyst

Dubai, Feb 7, IRNA – The European Union has no alternative available to replace Iranian oil in the next six months, UK oil and energy analyst Sam Barden said on Monday. The founding partner of SBI Markets DMCC, a Dubai-registered commodities trading and advisory company, told IRNA that the oil sanctions the European Union announced to take effect in the next six months is impractical, because, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are in dire need of Iranian oil and they will not favor sanctions. Citing feedback on impracticality of the EU oil sanctions, Barden said that Greece is most likely to suspend its membership in the European Union. He said that the EU has opted for a major economic confrontation with Iran and predicted that EU will come out as loser. Barden said that the EU had better change policy toward Iran and go ahead with economic and political cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran rather than the oil sanctions. He said that the EU is currently suffering from debt crisis and if the oil sanctions go into effect, they will cause an escalation in the EU debt crisis. 'The EU has special status due to the current debt crisis. In order to relieve the current stalemate, the EU must opt for an economic zone rather than a financial one. The oil sanctions on Iran will deteriorate the debt crisis in the EU bloc,' he said. Barden said that the EU is currently a centralized bloc and the requirements of the 21st century call for decentralization. 'Otherwise, the EU will be subject to collapse.' He said that Iran will cope with the oil sanctions due to the demands for Iranian oil in the Asian emerging economies of India, China, Pakistan and Greece as well. He said that quality of Iranian oil is competitive with that of Saudi Arabia and the political situation in Saudi Arabia will not allow it to pump extra oil than its OPEC quota to make up for shortfall in the European markets./end