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Iran unlikely to return to global oil, gas markets before 2016 — Russian lawmaker

Saudi Arabia is now supplying Europe with oil that was earlier delivered by Iran

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. Iran is unlikely to restart full-fledged oil and gas supplies to the global market before the beginning of 2016, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Thursday.

The statement comes in the wake of progress achieved at the Iran nuclear talks in Switzerland last week paving the way for the international community to gradually lift sanctions from the Islamic Republic.

Some experts have warned that world oil prices may plunge to $5 per barrel if the sanctions were lifted from Iran and the Islamic Republic beefed up crude supplies to world markets.

"First of all, an agreement [on the Iran nuclear program] has not yet been signed. And there will be a lot of arguments on this issue," said Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament).

"Americans have some conditions while Iranians have other terms," the lawmaker said in a live broadcast with Russian News Service radio station.

Moreover, if this agreement is signed, "it must be fulfilled and until it begins to be fulfilled, the sanctions will remain in force," Pushkov said.

The lawmaker said this was "the second factor, which makes it unrealistic to talk until the end of this year and the beginning of 2016 about Iran’s full-fledged return to the global oil and gas market."

But even if Iran returns to the global market, one has to understand that its potential share of oil is currently supplied by Saudi Arabia, the lawmaker said.

"The Saudis are supplying Europe with oil which was earlier delivered by Iran," Pushkov said.

Today there are actually no routes for the delivery of Iranian energy products to Europe, he said.

"Almost noting connects Iran and the European markets. There is only a limited volume of oil pipelines running across Turkey," the Russian lawmaker said.

No investor would invest money in oil and gas pipeline construction in the current situation. Dozens of billions of US dollars is required to build powerful oil and gas pipelines across Syria and Iraq, Pushkov said.

"That is why, this is just hysteria that Iran will now return to the global oil markets and oil prices will fall sharply," the Russian lawmaker said.