Iran halts oil sales to France, Britain

[FarCenter]

AFP - Iran has halted all oil sales to France and Britain in retaliation for a phased EU ban on Iranian oil that is yet to fully take effect, the Iranian oil ministry said on Sunday.

"Oil sales to British and French companies have ceased," spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar said in a statement on the ministry's official website.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120219-iran-halts-oil-sales-france-britain

[GliderGuider]

1. Well, THIS is going to be interesting.

Better lay in a big batch of

[lib2DaBone]

2. Take that suckers.....

And if you think the gas lines of the 70's were bad.... wait until Israel leads the United Staes to a war with Iran.

[Fearless]

3. So the GOP wants to destroy our wind farms now?

Further tightening their grasp on our metaphorical balls.

[titaniumsalute]

4. Here's the thing

Who cares? Britain and France can buy crude from somewhere else. The problem with gas prices has nothing to do with Iran but Wall Street speculators. Fuck Iran. Let them sell to someone else.

[FarCenter]

5. Iran mainly sells to Greece, Italy, Spain..., not so much to France and Britain

Recall that until very recently Britain was an exporter of crude oil from the North Sea. However, Britain is now an importer, although likely from other countries than Iran.

[pampango]

20. The UK gets 1% and France 4% of their oil imports from Iran, so stopping that trade is for show

whether Iran stops exporting or UK/France stop importing.

The potential for economic/financial pain is significant when it comes to the oil trade between Iran and Greece/Italy/Spain but, even then, there are alternative markets for buying and selling oil.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Exactly right. The rising gas prices is fully the fault of speculators.

Fuck 'em all.

[KamaAina]

7. Let me see if I've got this straight.

Two of our staunchest NATO allies have been buying oil from a potential rogue nuclear state up until, oh, I don't know, yesterday???

[harmonicon]

8. "rogue nuclear state" <-- That's hilarious!!!!

This entire thing is hilarious, because oil is a commodity traded around the world. So long as all of what's produced is sold somewhere (and it will be), it doesn't matter who buys it from where - that's not how it's priced, so who buys it from who just doesn't matter at all.

[leftyohiolib]

9. its kabuki theater

[harmonicon]

11. No need to specifically insult the Japanese.

I think just calling it "theater" would be enough.

[DRoseDARs]

18. *facepalm* No one is insulting the Japanese.

Good grief.

[harmonicon]

21. Sorry for trying to inject some humour into the discussion.

Did you REALLY think I meant that it was an insult to the Japanese?

[DRoseDARs]

22. The dangers of not using the :sarcasm: tag...

And in reality, there are some people that actually ARE bothered by the use of that particular metaphor in politics. Their hands are raw from clutching their pearls so hard.

[harmonicon]

23. I'm only bothered by it being tautologous.

Kabuki is already a type of theater, so there is no need to write/say "kabuki theater."

[Purveyor]

10. Crude is up to $105.26. Our local mid-michigan prices had an unusual 'saturday' increase of

.30 to $3.50

Most likely going higher.

Talkers on hatewing radio are giddy...indeed.

[TexasPaganDem]

12. This might be a bit out of date but...

I remember a few years ago when the biggest concern about cutting off oil from Iran was China and it's growing economy. The concern was that China was / is one of Iran's biggest customers. China also holds the third largest amount of U.S. debt after the Social Security trust fund and the Federal Reserve (about 8 percent or $1.2 trillion dollars). The issue was that if we choked off enough oil from Iran that China's growth was burdened, China could, in retaliation, request payment for the debt they held.

Forward back to today.

The 2011 budget was $3.69 trillion dollars. If the U.S. Government had to make $1.2 trillion in what amounts to bearer bonds good during a fiscal year, or even a large portion of it, the U.S. economy would make Greece look like they had it good.

But that being said, Iran only produces about 5% of the world's oil. Russia, Saudia Arabia, and the U.S. all produce more (significantly so), and both Russia and the U.S. have debated increasing production; as have Argentina and Brazil. OPEC stating that they would cut back production if the U.S. and Russia increased production would keep the oil markets still rising, however.

[FarCenter]

13. The problem is that global production has more or less plateaued

Depending on how you measure it, the world produces around 89 million barrels/day. The decline in production in old fields is being offset by new fields coming into production and by enhanced recovery technology being applied to old fields.

So, there is essentially no net increase in oil coming to market, and the new oil replacing production declines is very expensive, such as in the very deep off-shore Brazillian fields.

Meanwhile, demand is increasing in emerging economies, which causes global prices to rise. This is particularly bad for countries like the US who have not imposed heavy taxes to limit imports in the past.

[TheFarseer]

14. yes

If you want to see why gas prices are so high, all most Americans have to do is look in the mirror. We burn far more oil per capita than any other country although some of them (China, India) are doing their best to catch up. Everyone blaming speculators fail to acknowledge their role in this problem - with my appologies to those few who ride the bus, subway or bike it to work.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. Strange how Pakistan has nuclear weapons and yet

Pakistan is more likely to ignite than Iran and yet it has been allowed to have quite a large nuclear arsenal. Pakistan is not that far from Israel.

I think the Iran thing is just about oil?

[Hugabear]

16. ding ding ding

Nobody threatened military action against Pakistan when they were developing nukes.

Hell, Israel has put together a large nuclear stockpile with nary a word in protest

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. Now that we have siphoned off Iraq's oil now it's time for Iran

according to the Bushes and other oil fiends.

We need windmills and other alternative resources not oil

[dipsydoodle]

19. China rebukes Iran for France, UK oil ban

(Reuters) - China rebuked Iran on Monday for stopping oil sales to British and French companies at the weekend, calling for renewed efforts at dialogue over an escalating stand-off over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

China has repeatedly called for talks over Tehran's efforts to enrich its own uranium, which Western countries suspect is aimed at obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has said the enrichment is for power generation.

"We have consistently upheld dialogue and negotiation as the way to resolve disputes between countries, and do not approve of exerting pressure or using confrontation to resolve issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said when asked about Iran's ban on oil sales to British and French firms.

China "hopes all sides can get back onto the correct path of dialogue as soon as possible," Hong told a daily news briefing.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/20/uk-china-iran-idUKTRE81J0FX20120220

On the OP, through no fault of the poster, the title creates an odd impression - its actually UK and French oil companies as opposed to our home markets.