Iran wants to avoid an oil price war with rival producers and only gradually lift exports once sanctions against it are lifted, a senior official said, in what would be a major shift away from planning to ship as much fuel as soon as possible.
Iran, which has some of the world’s biggest petroleum reserves, has repeatedly urged fellow OPEC members to make room for a supply jump from the nation, pledging to ramp up exports as soon as sanctions on its oil industry are lifted under a nuclear deal with world powers.
A move to limit export growth would be a major shift in Iran’s policies in an environment when most OPEC and non-OPEC producers are fighting for market share despite a growing global oil glut, which has already cut crude prices by two-thirds since 2014, hurting energy firms and oil exporting nations.
“We don’t want to start a sort of a price war,” National Iranian Oil Co international affairs director-general Mohsen Qamsari said by telephone.
“We will be more subtle in our approach and may gradually increase output,” Qamsari said. “I have to say that there is no room to push prices down any further, given the level where they are.”
He did not give any detail on how much Iran would be prepared to moderate a rise in its shipments, but said Iran would not offer further discounts to lure customers.
Iran now offers 90-day credit, free shipping and some discounts on crude prices to buyers in India.
The more cautious words from Iran come a week after relations with its main Middle East rival and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia broke down over the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric who was revered in Iran.
A more moderate re-entry into markets would suit Saudi Arabia and other Middle East OPEC members who are already locked into an aggressive fight for market share.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia signaled that the new rift would not affect talks on the Syrian civil war.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh last weekend said Iran would not seek to distort the markets, but would make sure it regains its market share.
Iranian crude oil exports have fallen to about 1 million barrels per day, down from a peak of almost 3 million barrels per day in 2011, before Western sanctions against Tehran started.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group