Following the West’s imposition of sanctions and boycott of Iranian oil, the search for suitable solutions to counteract the sanctions by relevant government sectors such as the National Oil Company and the Central Bank is progressing extremely slowly. Even solutions proposed previously, such as taking significant steps to deal with the oil and banking sanctions, are now being neglected by such government bodies (for example, operating the oil exchange, bilateral and multilateral agreements and contracts to transfer foreign currency, oil-tanker insurance, etc.). In addition, the government bodies dealing with oil sales in Iran, especially the International Division of the National Oil Company, rely almost entirely on traditional means of selling oil on international markets, and are making no effort to invest in other sales and marketing methods. Experts believe that of the few government-sector steps in this field, none will have a serious or significant effect. In contrast, it appears that the private sector in Iran has, for a variety of reasons such as its ability to make quick decisions as well as its economic interests, actually begun to take more effective steps in this regard, such as insisting on selling crude oil on the stock exchange and setting up corporations to sell Iran’s crude oil on international markets. This last step has been taken by a private Iranian company that has purchased a bankrupt French oil refinery. Notably, the purchase of oil-refinery stocks in different countries is a well-known and accepted means of marketing oil globally, and is considered an important tool in stabilizing these markets in the oil-consuming countries. For different reasons, both because of legal restrictions and because of government inefficiency,Irandoes not benefit in the slightest from this option. The French Petro Plus oil refinery went bankrupt, because of the deteriorating European economic situation, allowing the private Iranian company, Tadbir Energy, to submit a bid to purchase and operate the oil refinery. In this way, the Iranian company will be able to purchase Iranian crude oil using the French oil refinery it owns, thus taking an effect step that others can copy in order to crush (not just evade) the sanctions.
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