A little over a quarter of a one-million-barrel offering of Iranian crude on the local energy exchange found buyers in the first day of trading, IRNA reports , as Iran seeks alternative ways of selling its crude abroad after U.S. sanctions enter into effect next Monday. The energy exchange, last used four years ago amid UN sanctions, was revived earlier this month. The idea for the exchange is to have private local entities buy the crude and then resell it to foreign traders. Analysts accurately point out that this would still put the foreign entities on the hook for penalties from Washington as doing business with Iranian entities would constitute a breach of the sanctions. However, not all agree that this fact would make the move ineffective. Buyers, IRNA reports, were required to pay a tenth of the deal’s value within no more than two hours of making the […]