Total: investing in Iran amid sanctions impossible for energy giants

The EU attempts to continue investments in Iran despite the US decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran are impossible for energy giants as they need access to the US banking system, Total President and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said during an Energy session of the SPIEF.

"I cannot run a global company like Total without having access to the US banking system or US investors, that’s a matter of fact. The world economy today is organized around the currency which is a dollar. It’s not my job to decide if we need another financial system, it’s not the case today, so we have to be pragmatic," Sputnik cited Pouyanne as saying.

"Unfortunately, I don’t think so, maybe it could work for smaller companies, less global ones, which I think is the objective of European governments, but for the large companies… it’s not possible,"he said, asked if he would accept the European Union’s potential leeway to continue investments in Iran.