BACKGROUND: EU trade with Iran

Jan 23, 2012, 14:26 GMT

Brussels - Iran provides a notable, but not decisive, quantity of oil to the European Union. Of the 896 million barrels of crude imported to the 27 EU member states in the first quarter of 2011, just 4.4 per cent came from Iran.

Over the whole of 2010, Iran supplied 5.7 per cent of the around 3.8 billion barrels (1 barrel = 159 litres) imported by the EU.

The proportion is considerably higher in some countries, with Greece reliant on Iran for 25 per cent of its oil imports, Italy for 13 per cent and Spain for around 10 per cent.

The EU and China are Iran's largest trading partners, with oil making up 90 per cent of Iranian exports to Europe.

Russia was the largest supplier of oil to the EU in 2010, providing 29.7 per cent of the total, followed by Norway with 13.1 per cent. Saudi Arabia, contributing a 6-per-cent share, was the largest oil supplier from the Middle East.

Libya was a significant supplier that year, making up 10.7 per cent of the EU total. In the first quarter of 2011, before civil war erupted in Libya, the figure was about 9 per cent.

Other major suppliers to the EU in 2010 included Kazakhstan, with 6 per cent, Nigeria at 4.4 per cent, Azerbaijan at 3.9 per cent and Iraq at 3.2 per cent.

Over the course of 2010, the EU imported goods from Iran worth 14.3 billion euros (18.6 billion dollars), 52 per cent up on the previous year. The bulk of this increase was due to crude oil imports, which rose sharply to a cost of 13 billion euros.

EU exports to Iran rose to 11.3 billion euros, from 10.4 billion euros, with machinery making up most of the figure. Iran is ranked 22 on the list of countries the EU imports from, and 25 on the list of countries the EU exports to.

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