Embargo Lifted, Iranian Oil Reaches Europe

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Iranian oil attained a new level of restored legitimacy in early-March, with word that a tanker anchored near a Spanish refinery had begun off-loading the first shipment for Europe’s consumption since the lifting of a 2012 European Union embargo.

Shana, the official news service of Iran’s Oil Ministry, said the tanker, the Monte Toledo, an 890-foot vessel registered in Portugal, had started transferring the Iranian oil to the refinery of Compañía Española de Petróleos, in Algeciras, a southern Spanish port near Gibraltar.

The news came as President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and other top Iranian officials asserted that the country was regaining its share of the market in crude oil, forfeited when the European oil embargo and other Western sanctions were intensified years ago in response to Iran’s disputed nuclear activities.

Many of those sanctions, including the European embargo, were terminated or suspended under Iran’s international agreement with major world powers to restrict its nuclear work. The agreement was completed in July and officially took effect in January. 

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