PLAYING "HIDE THE NEWS" The price of oil gains 1%

A character represents Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad destroying the headquarters of the United Nations with an atomic bomb, during the final preparations for a carnival which is taking place this week in Köln, Germany.

• Iranian state agency Press TV announces the halting of exports towards the EU, but the officials in Tehran deny the information

Oil prices rose yesterday, on the London and New York Exchanges, after a press agency of Iran announced that the country cancelled its oil deliveries to six EU member states, and the US Department of Energy said that American oil inventories fell.

The announcement made by Iranian state-owned press agency Press TV concerning the halting of oil exports to France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Holland and Spain yesterday caused the price of oil to rise almost 2%, but the rise was capped after the Ministry of Oil in Tehran denied the information.

The price of oil with March delivery rose 1% 10:48 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to 101.74 dollars barrel.

On the ICE Futures in London, the price of Brent crude with March delivery rose 1.4%, to 118.94 dollars/barrel.

The Ministry of oil in Iran informed that, if an official decision on the prohibition of oil exports were made in Tehran, the Supreme National Security Council would make an announcement on that matter. "We deny this information (ed. note: concerning the restriction on oil exports). If such a decision were made, then it would be announced by the Supreme National Security Council", a spokesperson of the Ministry of Oil said yesterday, quoted by Reuters.

On the other hand, however, Iranian press agency Fars yesterday informed that Tehran asked the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and Holland to protest in their respective countries for the sanctions which the EU will impose against Iran due to its nuclear program.

Iran recently threatened that it would resort to halting the deliveries of oil in response to the embargo which the EU would place on importing crude from the Islamic country, starting July 1st.

Analysts feel that the global oil market will not be seriously affected if Iran were to stop its exports of oil to Europe.

Iran is the second largest oil producer of the OPEC, with a volume of 4 million barrels a day. About 80% of its total revenues made by Iran on the oil segment come from exports.

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The stocks of crude oil shrank by 171,000 barrels last week, to 339.1 million barrels, according to the Department of Energy in Washington. Analysts were expecting them to increase by 1.5 million barrels.

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Iran will present a new generation of centrifugal pumps for enriching uranium, the Iranian public television announced. According to it, "the fourth generation centrifugals, made in Iran, have a greater speed and a higher output capacity.[...]".

Iran's move is construed as an attempt to show the Western powers that the harsher sanctions against Iran did not succeed in slowing down the country's technological progress. Ahmadinejad announced last week "the inauguration of several important nuclear projects in the coming days", in spite of the sanctions.