Total agreement shows opportunities in Iran outweigh sanction risks

“I think people will take heart from that. ‘Total’ has decided clearly that the opportunities in Iran outweigh the risks of sanctions being restored, because if they went in there with their investment and the Iran started its nuclear program again then the sanction of course will be restored and Total would lose lots of money,” said Hannay in an interview with IRNA when asked about his opinion on Total gas deal with Iran..
“So we have to assume that Total has taken the view that this is not going to happen. That’s very good if they have taken that view and I think it could have a knock on effect with other companies; So hopefully there would be more investment in Iran. I think there could be a lot more trade.”
“Iran after all is a seriously large market of 80 million people, this is not peanuts and it should be possible to do a lot more trade and investment. I hope that it will happen.”
“The banking aspect is very tricky because of the US sanctions; Its not easy to get around that but I think some people would be probably starting to find ways around it. Given that we are no longer imposing sanctions ourselves.”
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