S Arabia Not Able to Replace Iran oil: Zangeneh
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh rejected claims by Saudi officials that Riyadh can replace Iranian oil in the global market.
“Such overstatements could only appease (US President Donald) Trump, but the market will never them on trust,” Zangeneh told Shana news agency on Monday.
He added, “It seems that the claims by the Saudi officials were made under pressure from Mr. Trump”.
The minister added that neither Saudi Arabia nor any other producer has such a capacity.
The remarks came after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg that his country and other producers had raised output by about 1.5 million barrels per day, offsetting an estimated 700,000 barrels per day taken off world markets due to anti-Iran sanctions.
“The request that America made to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries is to be sure that if there is any loss of supply from Iran, that we will supply that. And that happened,” he said.
Back in May, Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), despite objections from other signatories of the accord.
In August, Washington re-imposed the first round of anti-Iran sanctions it had lifted under the JCPOA. The second phase of US bans will come into effect next month.
The Trump administration has called on all buyers of Iranian oil to cut imports to zero. Earlier this week, oil prices hit a four-year high, with the international benchmark Brent topping $86 per barrel.