Iran Misses Deadline to Renew Monitoring Pact: Iran Snapshot

(Bloomberg) -- Here is a snapshot of what’s happening in Iran, the status of nuclear talks and energy markets.

Latest Developments

Iran missed a midnight deadline to renew its temporary atomic-monitoring pact with international inspectors, raising the prospect that it could delete sensitive enrichment information and complicating broader negotiations to revive its nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran has said it would decide whether to renew the agreement only after it expires. The country let a previous deadline lapse by 24 hours last month before agreeing to extend the pact, which preserves video and enrichment data captured at Iranian nuclear installations.

Tehran’s government has threatened to permanently delete the information depending on the outcome of wider discussions over sanctions relief and could use the expiry of its arrangement with the International Atomic Energy Agency as leverage in those negotiations.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has been warning for weeks that failure to extend the pact would degrade international understanding of Iran’s nuclear program just as the country massively steps up uranium enrichment with advanced new technologies.

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Oil

Oil eked out a small gain in a choppy trading session with traders awaiting upcoming deliberations among OPEC+ producers that may lead to a supply hike.

When it meets next week, the producer alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia is widely expected to revive some more of its halted output, according to a Bloomberg survey. A rise in crude flows from Iran is set to be delayed as nuclear talks drag on. Still, the uncertainty is complicating OPEC+’s calculations.

Iran’s exports have plunged from 2 million barrels a day to barely anything since then-President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal and tightening of sanctions in 2018. Iran is exempt from OPEC+ quotas because of those U.S. penalties.

Agenda

June 25: Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi will give a television interview at 17:00 GMT.

July 1: OPEC+ holds its next full meeting. Iran’s position may be a key talking point, as it will complicate the group’s decision over whether or not to raise output beyond July.

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