Here We Go Again
11 November 2018: One of the most anticipated events in the oil and tanker market will go into effect on Monday, November 5th: U.S. sanctions against Iran will snap back. Any country or company buying oil from Iran after that deadline will be at risk from U.S. sanctions. In anticipation of the implementation date, many countries have already started to scale back purchases from Iran and the country’s exports have declined significantly since the U.S. administration announced that it would leave the Iran Nuclear Deal and reimpose sanctions. Some of the key questions around the sanctions have been: What will China and India do? Will there be waivers? Is there enough spare capacity in the world to compensate for the loss of Iranian barrels? Will the U.S. moderate their position if oil prices rise too much so close to the midterm elections? And last, but for our readers, definitely not least, what will happen to tanker rates?
