TEHRAN - Iranian crude oil has traded at over $100 per barrel with Asian refineries this week as the Iranian parliament forwarded a proposal to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz to prevent the passage of tankers that carry oil to countries that have imposed sanctions on Iran, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The measure was response to the European Union’s oil embargo on Iran that took effect on July 1 as well as a U.S. law that penalizes countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran by denying their banks access to the United States market. The law came into force on June 28.
On June 9 Iran slammed fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota "violators", accusing them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping.
Iran's OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said Tehran had officially protested to OPEC that Saudi Arabia was "saturating the market" under pressure from the United States and the European Union, according to the IRNA News Agency.
"It is not right that two or three countries compensate for a country that is being sanctioned. OPEC members should not work against each other," Khatibi was quoted as saying.
On June 30 Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi called for an emergency OPEC meeting, saying the current market value of oil has become "illogical."
Some OPEC countries including Venezuela and Algeria responded to Iran’s call for emergency meeting, a move which was influential in pushing prices up.
Qasemi had said at a recent OPEC meeting in Vienna the member states agreed to hold emergency meeting if oil prices fell below $100 per barrel.
Qasemi said that if OPEC members do not observe their quota and the organization's production ceiling of 30 million barrel per day, the market will fall into chaos.
Brent crude was trading at $95.51 per barrel in London on Friday.
