(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The European Union has removed two Iranian oil companies from its sanctions list, the first such action since Iran reached a nuclear agreement with world powers earlier this month, a notice from the British finance ministry said yesterday.
Petropars Operation and Management and Petropars Resources Engineering had been pressing for their removal from a list of sanctioned companies for months on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to include them.
The companies, which are the part of a group involved in extracting natural gas from Iran's South Pars field, appealed to the EU court in May to allow their removal from the list.
The court removed the companies after receiving no objection from the European Council. The Council itself could not immediately be reached for comment.
The court at the same time declined to remove two other companies, Petropars Iran Co and Petropars Oilfields Services Co, from the list because of the larger stakes those entities have in parent group NIOC.
While the decision to remove the two groups was not related to the recent nuclear agreement, a lawyer for the two said she was hopeful the warming relations between Iran and the west would ensure her clients stay off the list of sanctioned companies.
"Because this is the first annulment that happened after the Iran agreement ... we are hoping that the council has not appealed in good faith," said Pavani Reddy, managing partner of law firm Zaiwalla and Co Solicitors, adding that applying new charges against them would be "a waste of time and resources".
European courts in the past nullified sanctions against the National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC), Iran's biggest tanker firm, only to put it back on the list later.
Meanwhile, oil prices steadied yesterday as a sharp fall in the dollar balanced evidence of growing oversupply, with core Opec producers pumping near record levels.
A Reuters monthly survey of output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries yesterday showed the cartel has pumped more than 32 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, up 140,000 bpd from June.
But a fall in the dollar after weaker-than-expected US employment data limited price declines. The dollar was down more than 1 percent against a basket of currencies.
Brent crude oil was down 25 cents at $53.06 a barrel by 1350 GMT US light crude was down 30 cents at $48.22 a barrel.
Commerzbank's head of commodities research in Frankfurt, Eugen Weinberg, said Opec must eventually cut back on production to avoid much lower oil prices.
"We are also hopeful that Opec will agree on a stricter quota discipline at its December meeting," Weinberg said. The fall in oil mirrored a general sell-off in commodities on worries about demand in China, the world's biggest user of energy and many key materials such as copper.
China's state planner said on Friday a slowing economy must not be allowed to morph into social risks as the volatile Chinese stock market fell again.
"All commodities are down," said Abhishek Deshpande, oil analyst at Natixis. "Commodities face weak demand, excess supplies and weakness in China. More weakness is ahead of us."
Brent headed for its fifth consecutive weekly fall.
Opec members produced around 31.25 million bpd in the second quarter, about 3 million bpd more than daily demand, a separate Reuters survey showed earlier this week.
The surplus oil has filled stockpiles around the world, driving prices down sharply. Both major crude oil benchmarks are down more than 50 percent from a year ago. Chart analysts said oil futures looked weak.
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