CNBC’s Croft: Iran Oil Sanctions Enforcement Is Looser Under Biden, Biden Might Tighten It to Get Israel to Not Strike

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” CNBC Contributor and Global Head of Commodity Strategy for RBC Capital Markets Helima Croft stated that “five years ago, we saw more significant sanctions enforcement” on Iranian oil, but “Now, we have Iranian oil at about a six-year high. And so, I do think the White House is now talking about potentially tougher sanctions enforcement in an effort to maybe get the Israelis to hold their fire.”

Croft said, “China is the principal buyer of Iranian barrels, but we’ve seen Iran, as you mentioned, five years ago, we saw more significant sanctions enforcement. Now, we have Iranian oil at about a six-year high. And so, I do think the White House is now talking about potentially tougher sanctions enforcement in an effort to maybe get the Israelis to hold their fire. But we would be potentially talking around 1.7 million barrels a day of exports if a major terminal is hit. And, again, I think the bigger question would be would the Iranians, in turn, look to target, for example, ships in the [Strait] of Hormuz? They did that in 2019. They hit tankers off the coast of [the] UAE. Would they go after major pipelines in the region? They certainly retain the capacity to do damage to regional energy infrastructure. The question is, what would be on their target list?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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