Morocco to maintain Iran oil imports following diplomatic spat

Bloomberg: Morocco will continue to import oil from Iran, which supplied more than a fourth of its crude in 2008, even after cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic, the head of the country’s sole oil refiner said.

By Tarek Halim

April 10 (Bloomberg) — Morocco will continue to import oil from Iran, which supplied more than a fourth of its crude in 2008, even after cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic, the head of the country’s sole oil refiner said.

“We haven’t received any government instructions to stop buying oil from Iran, and shipments are proceeding as usual,” Jamal Ba-Amer, chief executive officer of Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du Raffinage told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Mohammedia late yesterday.

The Iranian ambassador left the kingdom last month after Morocco recalled its charge d’affaires over comments made Feb. 20 by an Iranian official questioning Bahrain’s sovereignty. It later accused Iran of spreading Shi’ah ideology in Morocco, a mostly Sunni country of 31 million people.

Morocco, the only North African country with no oil of its own, imported 5.5 million metric tons of crude in 2008 for a cost of 31 billion dirhams ($3.7 billion). Saudi Arabia shipped 48 percent and Iran 26 percent.