LONDON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Operations at the Rhum gas field in the North Sea are shuttered while authorities examine EU sanctions on Iran, British energy company BP said.
The European Union imposed sanctions in July on the Iranian energy sector as punishment for a lack of transparency from Tehran on its nuclear program.
International energy companies pulled away from the Islamic republic before and after the decision.
BP said it was shutting down operations at the North Sea field while it studies the EU sanctions imposed on Iran, London's Independent newspaper reports. The Iranian Oil Co. Ltd. holds a 50 percent stake in the field.
Washington announced its own set of sanctions in July, a decision that followed similar action from the U.N. Security Council in June.
The U.S. State Department announced after the sanctions that BP and Royal Dutch Shell were no longer selling jet fuel to Iran Air, while Shell, Total, Spanish energy company Repsol and Italy's Eni all abandoned work in the upstream sector.
The North Sea field produced more than 200 million cubic feet of natural gas during the first six months of 2010. That's about 1 percent of what British consumers consume during the peak heating season during the winter.
