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London - Opec member Iran, the world's No 5 oil producer,
exports large volumes of oil to China, India, South Korea and Italy, but it
will be Turkey, South Africa and Sri Lanka that will struggle the most if they
lose Iranian supplies
US sanctions forbid imports of Iranian oil and the European
Union has agreed on new sanctions against Iran's energy sector - which may
include an oil embargo - to press Tehran to abandon its nuclear activity.
Britain has said it will support the embargo, possibly in a
coalition with France and Germany, but the view of the major European Union
importers such as Italy, Greece and Spain is not clear.
An internal document on Iran written by the West's energy
watchdog the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed Iranian imports to IEA
Europe were 876 000 barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter of 2011, or
about 5% of the region's total.
This includes countries outside the EU like Turkey, but
excludes several members of the EU 27 such as Slovenia and Cyprus which are not
IEA members. Industry sources said Turkey's support would be required to make a
European embargo meaningful.
Here is a table showing the top five IEA importers of
Iranian crude oil in the second quarter of 2011:
Country imports (k/bpd) Percent of imports
1. Japan 251 000 5.9
2. Italy 249 000 13.3
3. Korea 239 000 7.4
4. Turkey 217 000 30.6
5. Spain 149 000 9.6
US data
According to the latest available US government data, Turkey
sourced half of its oil needs from Iran in the first six months of this year,
South Africa relied on Tehran for a quarter of its oil needs, and Sri Lanka was
fully dependent on Tehran.
The EU's energy commissioner said such a ban would not be a
problem for the EU as supplies could always be bought elsewhere.
About 450 000 bpd of Iranian oil is exported to the EU,
where Italy is the biggest buyer with 183 000 bpd or 13% of its needs, Spain
with 137 000 bpd (13%) and France with 49 000 bpd (4%), according to the US
Energy Information Administration.
Turkey imported 182 000 bpd from Iran, South Africa took in
98 000 bpd of imports and Sri Lanka totally relied on Iran with imports of 39
000 bpd.
US data showed that with imports of 20 000 bpd, Greece
covered 14% of its needs with Iranian oil, but trading sources told Reuters the
country has increased imports in the latest months as it finds difficulty in
sourcing crude from elsewhere due to sovereign default fears.
The lion's share of Iranian oil flows to Asia, where the biggest clients are China, India and Japan.
China imported 543 000 bpd of Iranian oil in the first six
months of 2011, covering a tenth of its needs.
Japan, India and South Korea also covered about a tenth of
their needs with Iranian oil, importing 341 000 bpd, 328 000 bpd and 244 000
bpd respectively.
Iran holds about 137 billion barrels of proven oil reserves,
or nearly 10% of the world total, according to the BP Statistical Review of
World Energy 2011.
Gas
Despite sitting on the world's second-largest reserves of
gas, Iran's growing appetite for its own gas, combined with tightening
international sanctions that have throttled its fledgling liquefied natural gas
programme, have made it a net gas importer for most of the last decade.
Natural gas accounts for 54% of Iran's total domestic energy consumption, while most of the remainder of energy consumption is attributable to oil, according to the IEA.
