0345 GMT: After months of bad news for Iran over its oil exports, Reuters has offered some hope for the Islamic Republic's efforts to circumvent sanctions, declaring, "Iran is shipping oil to China, its top buyer, despite a row over freight terms, and Japan has taken steps to resume imports in August".
A closer reading of the article shows that this is far from a return to normal for Tehran. Tokyo, which cut all shipments of Iranian oil in July, is merely opening up the possibility of resumption by providing insurance coverage for some tankers. China is restoring some but not all shipments.
State news agency IRNA inadvertently points out the challenge for Iran as it features India's authorisation of local insurers to replace the coverage lost when the European Union imposed sanctions on 1 July:
India has already cut its Iranian oil purchases by more than a fifth, enough to win a waiver from separate US sanctions, and is expected to load around 300,000 barrels per day this month. But NITC has [a] few of the vessels of the size needed to meet the requirements of at least one Indian refiner, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.
A few vessels? At least one refiner? That reads as a half-full, hopeful assessment of a difficult situation --- Iran's oil exports have fallen to 1.1 million barrels per day, less than half the level of 2011.
Posted via email from lissping
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