Iran says they are in new O&G talks with Italy and Switzerland, despite new sanctions

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Saw this news from official Iranian press.  Note that I am about as skeptical of Iran's Mehr News as I am with USA's CNN - both are heavily biased propaganda, in my opinion.

That said, Iran's Mehr News is stating in no uncertain terms that despite sanctions led by the USA (and Israel and Saudi Arabia... the list goes on) that Iran is currently having new talks about Oil & Gas cooperation with Switzerland and Italy.

And India has been resisting as well, although that isn't noted in this particular article.

The new round of O&G sanctions against Iran seems to have a few hiccups.

Iran, Europe kick off new round of oil talks [ with Iran ]

TEHRAN, Jun. 10 (MNA) – Despite US President Donald Trump’s threats on Iran in recent weeks and in the wake of US pullout from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), several foreign petrochemical delegations especially European firms have held talks with the senior officials of Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry.

... US unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran forced several countries especially European countries to adopt harsh positions on the issue.

For this purpose, some European countries including Switzerland and Italy held confidential talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran without any worry of US action in this respect. ...

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

The talks seem to be with some firms and not at a country level. Casale is a swiss petrochemical firm based in Lugano mainly producing ammonia. Only small volumes for the petrochemical industry are at stake here.

The only remaining swiss reffinery is configured to process light oil with low sulfur content and imports mainly oil from Nigeria and Kazakhstan. Switzerland doesn't import saudi oil as it is too heavy and the sulfur content is too high. I suspect it will be also the case with iranian oil. So don't expect to see Switzerland increase the oil imports from Iran even if the reason is unrelated to the sanctions.

 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Thanks for the clarification, Guillaume.

Seems that Iran's Mehr News is exaggerating.

Or, as I called it in the opening comment, "heavily biased propaganda".

[Carlsbad + 19]

still, I think that European companies can just start to create JVs to avoid working directly with Iran and avoid sanctions ...