The world is still likely “a long way away” from seeing a treaty that would allow Iranian crude oil exports and production to be fully restored, chief economist for commodities trader Trafigura Group said at a conference on Tuesday.
Oil production and exports from Iran, which has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, was sharply curtailed due in large part to U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Relations between Tehran and Washington are expected to ease under U.S. President Joe Biden.
While some physical Iranian barrels have already made their way into the global market recently, reaching an international agreement between Iran and the United States needed to restore full production and export capacity is unlikely to happen quickly, said Trafigura’s Saad Rahim during CERAWeek by IHS Markit.
“International treaties, even when everyone is on the same page take a while to negotiate, to fine tune to get all the details right and we’re a long way away from that,” Saad said.