adminalso to diversify supplies, Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, said by phone yesterday.
Africa’s largest economy has been exploring ways to adapt to US sanctions against Iran, which it relies on for 29 percent of its oil imports.
President Barack Obama signed a law on December 31 that denies foreign banks that do business with the Central Bank of Iran access to the US financial system. The US may bar access to its banking system should a country not make “significant” reductions in its Iranian crude oil purchases during the first half of this year.
“We are importing very little oil from Iran,” Monyela said in an interview on his mobile phone yesterday. South Africa has suspended almost all oil imports, Reuters said, citing Ebrahim Ebrahim, the deputy minister of the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
It’s “hard to believe” that South Africa has suspended almost all its Iranian oil imports, the South African Petroleum Industry Association’s executive director Avhapfani Tshifularo said by phone.
SAPIA, the industry body, only expects to get feedback from a government task team on Iran by the end of May, he said.
Thandiwe Maimane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, declined to comment and referred questions back to Monyela. National Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane declined to comment.
South Africa’s cabinet is deliberating on Iran and hasn’t made a decision, government spokesman Jimmy Manyi said in Pretoria. — Bloomberg.
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