Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday, in a retaliatory measure against fresh EU sanctions on the nation's lifeblood, oil.

"Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped ... we will sell our oil to new customers," a spokesman was quoted saying on the ministry of petroleum's website.

The EU in January decided to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran's oil minister said on Feb 4 that Teheran would cut its oil exports to "some" European countries.

The European Commission said last week that the bloc would not be short of oil if Iran stopped crude exports, as they have enough in stock to meet their needs for around 120 days.

Industry sources told Reuters on Feb 16 that Iran's top oil buyers in Europe were making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of EU sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third - or over 300,000 barrels daily.

France's Total has already stopped buying Iran's crude, which is subject to fresh EU embargoes. Market sources said Royal Dutch Shell has scaled back sharply.

Iran was supplying more than 700,000 barrels per day to the EU plus Turkey in 2011, industry sources said.

By the start of this year imports had sunk to about 650,000 bpd as some customers cut back in anticipation of an EU ban.

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