INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
2019 highs on Tuesday after Washington announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers to stop buying from
Tehran.Brent crude futures were at $74.40 per barrel at 0239 GMT (8:09 am in India), up 0.5 per cent from their last close and not far off a
2019 peak of $74.52 reached on Monday.US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures hit their highest level since October 2018 at $65.95
per barrel before edging back to $65.89 by 0239 GMT, which was still up 0.5 per cent from their last settlement.The United States on Monday
demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran's eight
biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes.Before the reimposition of sanctions last year, Iran was the
fourth-largest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd), but
April exports have shrunk well below 1 million bpd, according to ship tracking and analyst data in Refinitiv.Barclay's bank said in a note
following the announcement that the decision took many market participants by surprise and that the move would "lead to a significant
tightening of oil markets".The British bank added that Washington's target to cut Iran oil exports to zero posed a "material upside risk to
our current $70 per barrel average price forecast for Brent this year, compared with the year-to-date average of $65 per barrel".ANZ bank
said in a note on Tuesday that "the decision is likely to worsen the ongoing supply woes being felt with Venezuelan sanctions, the OPEC
supply cut, and intensifying conflict in Libya".The move to tighten Iran sanctions comes amid other sanctions Washington has placed on
Venezuela's oil exports and also as producer club OPEC has led supply cuts since the start of the year aimed at tightening global oil
markets and propping up crude prices.Ellen Wald, non-resident senior fellow at the Global Energy Center of the Atlantic Council, said the
United States "seem to expect" Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to replace the Iranian oil, but she added "that this is not
necessarily the way Saudi Arabia sees it".Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest exporter of crude oil and OPEC's de-facto leader
The group is set to meet in June to discuss its output policy."Should OPEC decide to end their supply cut programme going into the second
half of the year, this could limit oil's upside in the coming months," said Lukman Otunuga, analyst at futures brokerage FXTM.Meanwhile, the
Atlantic Council said the US move would hurt Iranian citizens."We're going to see their currency collapse more, more unemployment, more
inflation," said Barbara Slavin, director for the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, adding that the US sanctions were "not
going to bring Iran back to the (nuclear) negotiating table".Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha
Elections 2019 on TheIndianSubcontinent.com/elections
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