Oil market 'relaxed' says White House

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- The White House said Monday a "relaxed" trend in the oil markets "continued in May," indicating the market could survive the loss of oil from Iran.

"Today the president made the determination … regarding the supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran," the White House said in a press release, pointing out an Energy Information Administration report in late April, "indicates that tightness in the oil market relaxed somewhat in March and April of 2012."

"That trend continued in May," the White House said.

At issue is how oil markets around the world will perform with many countries joining the United States in economic sanctions against Iran meant to pressure Iran to abandon an alleged nuclear weapons program.

The White House said, "There currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their imports of Iranian oil."

Helping the market survive the sanctions, world demand for oil has slowed and other oil producing states have increased production, the White House said.

The president made his determination, "Taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by countries other than Iran, inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available strategic petroleum reserves," the White House said.

Many buyers of Iranian oil have already found other sources "or announced they are in productive discussions with alternative suppliers," the release said.