Hellenic Petroleum will carry out any transactions with Iran unless they are fully within the framework of international policy, company executives told a general shareholders' meeting on Monday, commenting on a decision by the US administration to withdraw from an international agreement reached in 2015 and the possibility of imposing trade sanctions against Iran.

Hellenic Petroleum imports around 20 pct of its supplies from Iran, while the company was in a procedure to repay older debt to NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company). The group's executives noted there were alternatives in case Hellenic Petroleum needed to discontinue crude oil purchases from Tehran and underlined that the group managed to deal successfully with even greater difficulties in the recent past, when supplies were disrupted from Iran, Iraq and Libya while liquidity in Greece was extremely limited. They said that repayment of older debt was continuing and that the outstanding debt has been reduced markedly.

Hellenic Petroleum executives said the group was not about to risk any consequences in their cooperation with US oil companies, which extended to the hydrocarbon exploration sector.