Data show Germany has resumed petroleum imports from Iran despite US sanctions

Data cited in a Monday report by Iran’s official IRNA news agency showed that Germany had taken delivery of a large petroleum shipment from Iran in March.

The report cited data from the European Union’s statistics agency the Eurostat which showed the shipment imported by Germany had contained nearly 70,000 metric tons of Iranian crude oil or petroleum products.

Germany halted imports of crude oil or petroleum products from Iran after taking delivery of a 10,000-mt shipment in October 2018 and after the US withdrew from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and imposed sanctions on the country’s oil exports.

Eurostat figures showed that total petroleum imports from Iran by EU countries this year have reached 66,884 mt with Germany and Bulgaria being the only tow buyers.

The figures showed that EU’s petroleum imports from Iran had reached 4,181 mt in 2022.

The figures indicate that EU states are becoming increasingly reluctant to comply with US sanctions on Iran mainly because of a crunch in the international energy markets that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

That comes as some EU states have ignored Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine war by continuing to import crude oil and gas from the country.