After an initial hesitance over how the returning U.S. sanctions will affect Iran’s oil buyers, European refiners are beginning to wind down purchases from Iran after tanker providers, insurers, and banks began to shun Iranian deals and destinations for fear of exposing themselves to secondary sanctions. Several large European companies in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece are reportedly admitting that they won’t risk U.S. sanctions and are unable to find tankers and insurer providers willing to facilitate shipments of Iranian oil to Europe, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing company and trading sources. Iran’s total oil exports have averaged around 2.5 million bpd in recent months, peaking in April , just before the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Iran says that its May oil exports were higher than this year’s average , but it now looks like European refiners are choosing not to risk and have started to […]