According to Azerbaijani media, Iran’s Oil Ministry is confirming that their oil exports are dropping due to Western oil sanctions.
Iranian oil officials say Japan has made the biggest cut in oil purchases, despite recently getting an exemption from the United States. Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 28% from January to April 2012.
However, Iran’s oil exports have also gone down due to their own oil embargo of the European Union. The EU’s own oil sanctions go into effect on July 1.
Speaking of Japan, Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has been using oil to generate electricity, a lot more oil.
TEPCo reported that in March 2012 they used four times the amount of oil than in March 2011. They also used the most natural gas since August 2011, and August was a record for gas use by TEPCo; 2.079 million tons.
Regarding natural gas, the United States is so full of it, that there is no where left to store the stuff. Underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers are being used but even they are rapidly filling.
The result is that drilling and pumping of the LNG will have to stop, natural gas prices are at ten year lows (we consumers like that). Maybe this will mean an end to fracking and man made earthquakes?
But that might be bad news for places like Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The town has seen an economic boom; their tax revenues have gone up more than 10% between 2006 and 2010, and 115 new business in and around Lycoming County have been created.
In Egypt, ever since the January 2011 Revolution their gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan keeps getting blown up. April 9, 2012, it got blown up again, for the 14th time since the Revolution.
In Libya, U.S. officials are investigating oil deals made with Italy’s Eni, and France’s Total. The companies are being investigated for their connections to Muammar Gaddafi.
Eni officials said certain payments made to Gaddafi might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act. The U.S. is helping the new Libyan government investigate many oil companies, and could result in huge fines being levied in favor of the new government.