Oil Traders Leaving Iran
Israel National News is reporting that
The three largest oil trading firms in the world – Glencore, Trafigura and Vitol – announced Monday that they would no longer do business with Iran. A report in the London Financial Times said that the companies had concluded that there was too much risk and not enough profit in supplying Iran. The three companies had been responsible for supplying Iran with about half its daily oil use.
Analysis. We may not be able to get official sanctions in place. Now unofficial sanctions? Iran is vulnerable in a lot of places but POL for the daily economy is right at the top of the list. I suspect that somebody from Treasury walked into see a CEO or two and suggested that dealing with Iran was not in their company’s best interests. The treasury guy was probably from the office that tracks terrorist funds. Given the choice of selling product to the United States and not being continually hassled by Treasury as opposed to be continually hassled by Treasury and not being allowed to do business in the US? Easy decision.
