TEHRAN- Iranian heavy oil price increased $12.71 in June to register a 54-percent rise compared to the previous month, according to OPEC’s latest monthly report published on Tuesday.

Iran sold its heavy crude oil at $36.26 per barrel in the mentioned month, compared to May’s $23.55 per barrel.

According to the report, the country’s average heavy crude price was $37.68 since the beginning of 2020 up to the report’s publishing day.

The report put average Iranian crude output for the second quarter of 2020 at 1.958 million barrels per day indicating a near 103,000-bpd fall compared to the figure for the first quarter of 2020.

In addition to the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the global oil industry which resulted in the drastic fall in oil prices, the Iranian oil industry has also been under pressure from the U.S. efforts to isolate the country by re-imposing sanctions.

The new round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector was put in action in early November 2018 and many of Iran’s oil buyers have given in under the U.S. pressures.

In late 2019, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran will use any possible way to export its oil, stressing that exporting crude was the country’s legitimate right.

“We will use every possible way to export our oil and we will not succumb to America’s pressure because exporting oil is Iran’s legitimate right,” Zanganeh said.

EF/MA