Press TV- Iran says it is negotiating with new European clients to sell its crude oil.

Marziyeh Shahadaei, the country�s acting petroleum minister, was quoted by media as saying that the move would be part of Iran�s policy to increase oil exports specifically to Europe.

Shahadaei also suggested that this could be in response to recent declines in purchases by Iran�s Asian clients.

She nonetheless emphasized that those declines had not had any adverse effect on the country�s oil exports.

�The fact that certain Asian clients have decreased their purchases from Iran never means that Iran�s export capability has been undermined,� Shahadaei was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.

�Once our new negotiations succeed, the share of European clients in Iran�s export basket will grow larger than before.�

There had recently been reports that some Asian clients of Iran�s oil had decreased their purchases from the country.

They included India and South Korea.

Figures released by Reuters showed that the country�s imports of Iranian oil last month had seen a decline of 27 percent compared to the same period last year.

Other reports emerged last week that showed South Korea�s imports from Iran had declined by around 10 percent in October compared to the month before.

For several years before 2012 when Iran faced a series of draconian US-led sanctions, the country exported around 2.5 million barrels per day (mb/d), with more than half going to Asia, mainly China, South Korea, India and Japan. The sanctions decreased exports to below 1 mb/d. After they were lifted in early 2016, Iran�s oil exports increased gradually and today stand at around pre-sanctions levels.

Iran�s biggest oil importer in Asia is China which is followed by India and South Korea and eventually Japan.