Total CEO calls Iran gasoline embargo unworkable

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of French oil major Total SA (TOTF.PA) said on Thursday that an embargo against gasoline sales to Iran "wouldn't work."

"I am puzzled as to why we might think of using embargoes of petroleum products to Iran, first of all because they wouldn't work," Total CEO Christophe de Margerie told a panel at Columbia University in New York.

Total, the No. 4 oil company in the world, sells gasoline to Iran now, but "If there is a law that tells us to stop, then we will," de Margerie said. He added that Iran, which probably holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, should someday be an important supplier to Europe.

"The gas of Iran will be very important to supply Europe," he said. "Iran will be part of our system or we will have problems."

(Reporting by Joshua Schneyer, editing by David Gregorio)