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Iraq working on Strait of Hormuz tension: deputy PM
by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) April 1, 2012

Turkey cuts Iran oil purchases by 20%: company
Ankara (AFP) March 30, 2012 - Turkey's national oil company Tupras said on Friday it had cut its purchases of oil from neighbouring Iran by 20 percent as western nations tighten sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.

"Given the situation, it was decided following an evaluation to reduce by 20 percent crude purchases from Iran," the company said in a statement.

Turkey, which imports a third of its oil from Iran, is seeking to obtain an exemption from new US sanctions against Iran.

Under a new law aimed at pressing Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, the United States will penalise foreign financial institutions over transactions with Iran's central bank, which handles sales of the country's key export.

Earlier this month Washington granted financial institutions from Japan and 10 EU nations exemptions, praising the countries for reducing dependency on oil from the Islamic republic.

Turkish officials said they would seek a similar exemption.

Iran says that its nuclear programme is meant for peaceful purposes, but a number of Western nations fear it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildaz said the country would try to make up for lower imports from Iran by buying more crude from Libya, Anatolya news agency reported.

The EU, which is halting Iranian oil imports from July 1, is also adopting other sanctions that also make it more difficult for other countries to import Iranian oil.


Iraq is "working very hard" with Washington and Tehran to reduce tensions over Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil chokepoint, Baghdad's top energy official said on Sunday.

Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussein al-Shahristani said such a move would lead to a "great shortage" in supply from oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran itself, and added that closure of the waterway would drive prices sharply higher.

Shahristani said he thought current oil prices were "reasonable" and added that as Iraq increased its oil production, it would offer more crude to the market, while noting that Iraq would consider "very seriously" requests from customers impacted by sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

"Iraq is working very hard on the political level with the US and with Iran to try to avoid" hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz, Shahristani told AFP in an interview in English in his Baghdad office.

He added: "Iraq depends to a large extent on its exports from the southern terminals that go through the Strait of Hormuz, so of course we'll be very concerned. We are taking all actions possible politically, to discuss this issue, to defuse any possible military activities in the area."

Shahristani said Iraq was looking to increase exports along a pipeline to Turkey and repair another pipeline connecting the country to the Mediterranean via Syria, but admitted such moves "would not substitute ... our major export route through the Strait of Hormuz."

Last month, Iraq's cabinet moved to diversify its oil export routes and guard against a closure of the strait.

Baghdad said on Sunday that its oil exports in March were the highest for a single month since 1989, and energy officials hope to ramp up output dramatically in the coming years.

Iran has threatened retaliation for fresh Western sanctions over its nuclear programme, including a possible disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a Gulf chokepoint for global oil shipments, including 80 percent of Iraq's oil exports.

Shahristani noted: "If there is closure of the Strait of Hormuz ... there will be great shortage in the supply of crude oil from a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran itself and the Emirates. And we expect the price of crude oil will be much higher than where it is now."

The deputy premier said, however, that oil prices at their current levels, just above $100 per barrel in New York, were "reasonable."

"The oil price has not really hindered the economic recovery in different parts of the world," the former Iraqi oil minister said.

"Yes, of course there are economic hardships in Europe, the euro crisis, elsewhere, but this hasn't been due to oil prices.

"For the time being, we neither find any visible effect of the oil price on economic development, neither do we see any shortage of supply on the market," he said.

"On the contrary, we believe there is sufficient oil in the market, and there is really no crisis, or there is no imbalance in the supply and demand. If, however, we reach that point, of course, we will have to take actions as necessary."

Asked whether Iraq was benefiting from sanctions against Iran by picking up Tehran's former crude clients, he replied: "It has always been our policy to look for customers for our Iraqi oil, and whoever comes to us, we will look at their request very seriously."

"I don't think these are customers who are coming because of the sanctions on Iran, but there has always been a line up of customers for Iraqi crude oil," he added.

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Al-Qaeda sabotages Yemen pipeline after raids: official
Aden (AFP) March 31, 2012 - Al-Qaeda members sabotaged a gas pipeline in southern Yemen Friday after eight people, including five suspected Al-Qaeda members, were killed in an air strike and a shooting, a local official said.

The sabotage halted operations along the 320-kilometre (200-mile) pipeline linking Marib province to Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden.

Fire and billowing smoke could be seen from kilometres away, the official said.

"They were Al-Qaeda members who sabotaged the pipeline in response to the raids," the local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The pipeline attack came shortly after two US drone attacks in eastern Yemen targeted Al-Qaeda suspects, an official in Shabwa province said.

Five suspected members of the Islamist group were killed when a missile slammed into their car in the town of Azzan, 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Ataq, the capital of Shabwa, he added.

Witnesses said the car burst into flames before other militants put out the fire and retrieved the bodies.

An official at Azzan hospital said six people in a car travelling in the opposite direction of the targeted vehicle were wounded, one of whom later died.

Elsewhere, two men, including an intelligence officer, were shot dead as they left a mosque in the southern port city of Aden in an Al-Qaeda revenge attack, tribal sources said.

The Islamist group had recently distributed a statement threatening to sabotage oil pipelines in the event of US or Yemeni raids against them.

In October the group claimed a rocket attack on which stopped gas exports along the pipeline for ten days.

Yemen began exporting liquefied natural gas from Balhaf in 2009. French group Total has an almost 40% interest in the liquefication factory for Yemeni gas.

Al-Qaeda has a strong presence in Abyan province, north of Aden, and has controlled its capital of Zinjibar since May 2011. But the Assal tribe drove them out of Mudia.



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