ran [1] lowered the price of its oil to customers in Asia compared with Saudi Arabian grades for next month, bringing down the relative cost of its light grade to the lowest level in more than five years.

Iranian oil exports dropped 66 percent in July from a year earlier to less than 1 million barrels a day as the U.S. and the European Union tightened sanctions, according to a Sept. 5 report by Rhodium Group, citing customs data. Rhodium estimates exports at about 940,000 barrels a day, compared with 1.7 million barrels a day in June and 2.8 million in July 2011, the New York-based economic research group said Sept. 5 in an e- mailed report.