Highlights Months-long wind down of Iranian crude purchases expected US has given no indication of sanctions leeway Debt, equity trade might be permitted Washington — The Trump administration’s push to bring Iranian crude exports to zero officially begins Thursday, but analysts believe Iran will continue to export roughly 500,000 b/d through the early summer as the US, perhaps unofficially, allows certain buyers to continue their imports. “I expect that we’ll see a fairly messy process over the next couple of weeks to two months where some countries will keep taking incoming [Iranian] tankers, but they’ll be curtailing purchases,” said Peter Harrell, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former deputy assistant secretary with the State Department. Last week, the US announced that Iran sanctions waivers, known as significant reduction exemptions, […]