VIENNA (Dispatches) - Austria’s Oberbank, one of the first western banks to sign a deal to provide project finance to Iran, and energy giant OMV said they will withdraw from the country due to the threatened U.S. sanctions.
President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran last month and said that he would reimpose economic sanctions on the country.
Oberbank said transactions and letters of credit related to Iran will be provided exclusively for contracts signed before May 8, and payments will most likely no longer be possible from Nov. 4.
And also, Austria’s energy giant OMV says it plans to cease its operations in Iran amid growing signs that the United States is preparing to re-impose sanctions against the country.
OMV Chief Executive Rainer Seele told media that his company planned to conclude a seismic studies project in Iran but would not pursue projects further.  
"Let's face it, you cannot simply carry on in Iran," he said. "US sanctions are a much bigger risk for OMV's business than any possible compensation that Europe ... could offer."
OMV started operations in Iran in 2001 as operator of the Mehr exploration block in the west of the country. It halted work in 2006 due to sanctions, but signed several basic agreements for new projects when the 2015 deal was reached, Reuters added further in its report.
The Austrian energy group will now join several other major European companies that have announced they would abandon their Iran investment plans as a result of Trump’s plans to re-impose sanctions against Iran.
They include France’s Total that had signed a deal with Iran to invest in a multi-billion project to develop a gas field in southern Iran. However, it has announced that it would pull out of the project.
**** Oberbank had  set to finance Austrian projects in Iran .