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While the average oil price stood at $95 in June (one month before the EU sanctions were put into effect), the figure increased to $102.5 and $107.5 in the two months after the implementation of the embargos.
The European officials have put the total volume of the EU oil imports at 11mln barrels a day. While the EU members paid $32.4bln for importing 11mln barrels of crude on June 31, they were made to pay $35bln in July and $36.7bln in August for the same volume of crude.
Estimates show that the EU has paid $6.9bln more for buying the same volume of oil during the two months after imposing the sanctions against Iran.
The EU enforced a set of oil sanctions against Iran on July 1. The 27-nation bloc, which accounted for around 18 per cent of Iran's oil exports, said that all contracts for importing Iranian oil should be terminated from that date.
Economic and oil experts had earlier warned that the oil ban against Tehran would inflict huge losses on the entire world energy market, especially in Europe, where several EU members are going bankrupt and should soon announce economic collapse.
"The whole international economic system will be severely damaged by the oil sanctions against Iran," member of the parliament's Energy Commission Robert Beglarian told FNA in June.
"Energy is so important in the world that the whole world's economic system will be harmed by such sanctions and if Europeans continue the (present) trend (of embargos), Iran's oil will definitely find its way to alternative markets," he added.
Reminding Iran's special geographic position in the region and the world and its closeness to the consuming nations, he said that Tehran can sell its oil at lower costs compared with the farther suppliers and can gain more money by swapping oil supplies and other measures.
Iran is the second largest OPEC oil producer, producing about 4 million barrels of oil a day. The country's recoverable oil reserves are estimated at more than 137 billion barrels, or 12 per cent of the world's overall reserves.
I'm willing to bet that the higher prices are borne by the consumer, who is on the bottom of the feeding chain.
2nd, that the Iranian oil will find it's way to our competitors, namely China and India, who will not use Iranian oil as a replacement commodity, but as a supplemental commodity. i.e. - they will get a larger slice of the energy supply as a direct result. Which means the end cost in China and India may drop, while the EU and the US end costs (consumer price) will rise (has it ever NOT risen during shortages??). Law of supply and demand.
Sanction Tax. How sweet it is.