European Union governments have reached a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude to the EU but have yet to decide when such an embargo would be put in place. The agreement, news of which sent crude oil prices higher, followed talks in the last days of December between EU envoys. Objections to the idea, notably from Greece, were dropped during the talks. A European ban on Iranian crude would be part of concerted Western action to put pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, which many governments worry aims at producing an atom bomb. Tehran insists its aims are peaceful only. Iran supplies a total of around 450,000 barrels per day to EU member states, making the bloc collectively the second-largest market for Iranian oil after China. Accordingly, China will benefit from this European embargo.
