New US Sanctions against Iran to Disrupt Global Oil Market: ENI Chief

"The impact is more for the crude oil price, because Iran now is exporting about 2.6 million barrels (per day), and if we go back to the first sanctions, they were exporting 1.5 million," Claudio Descalzi told CNBC's Hadley Gamble on the sidelines of the ADNOC Downstream Investment Forum in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

When sanctions were imposed by the Barack Obama administration on Tehran in 2012, Iran's oil exports dropped to approximately 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). Since the export restrictions were lifted in 2015, as part of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, that figure increased by more than 1 million.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington would leave the deal, immediately sending oil prices into a tailspin.

"So there is a lack of 1 million in the market and that is going to impact the oil price, and also the balance of different crudes," the CEO said. "Because 1 million is going to Europe, the rest to the Far East."

The vast majority of Iran's oil exports, more than 1.5 million bpd, goes to China, India, Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea have already signaled they will try to seek waivers from the US to continue buying Iranian crude.

"We have a demand that is increasing 1.6 to 1.7 million bpd yearly average, so that is going to create a disruption in terms of cost and price," he added. "And when we have this kind of situation, the landscape becomes very uncertain."

Elsewhere in the interview, Descalzi referred to price uncertainty for investors, particularly those looking at long-term, multi-billion dollar projects like those required for the extractives sector.

"For energy you have to make big investments," he said. "And when there is a lot of uncertainty, the investment is not easy to be performed. But there are so many other geopolitical issues, that the landscape is very difficult to understand where we're going."

Asked if he thought Trump's decision was ill-judged, the CEO pointed to its impact on Europe and stressed his hope for a diplomatic solution.

"In any case Europe is still in agreement, so I think that diplomacy can find some solution, because Europe is the strongest ally of the US and the main impact of the Iran sanctions is going to Europe, as the impact of the Russian sanctions is going to hit Europe," Descalzi said.

"So we have a double effect, and I think that sooner or later some discussion has to be taken seriously."