China, as a major Iranian oil importer, is expected to raise oil import volumes from Iran after the countryreached ahistoric deal with world powers on its nuclear program on Tuesday, astrategic analyst said Tuesday.
Iran and the world powers group P5+1 reached an agreement on adetailed nuclear accord on Tuesday that allows the lifting of sanctions on Iran in exchange for allowing inspections at its nuclear sites.
"China was and remains one of the main destinations of Iranian oil exports,"Sijbren de Jong, a strategic analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, told Anadolu Agency.
"I expect China to start buying more Iranian oil after the deal," de Jong added.
Iran hasthe world's fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves,according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"International sanctions have profoundly affected Iran's energy sector and have prompted a number of cancellations or delays of upstream oil and gas projects," the EIA explained.
According to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy published in June 2014, Iran has the biggest proven natural gas reserves in the world, estimated at 33.8 trillion cubic meters.
"Iran will be interested - in the long term - if its oil and gas sectors attract investment and are upgraded to ship more of its energy products to Asia, in particular to China and India," de Jongsaid.
He added that in the long term Iran can also export LNG to Asia if they build the export facilities which the country currently lacks.
Iran is expected toincrease its oil and natural gas exports and production volumes, once sanctions are removed.
(Anadolu Agency)
