EMEA News
Officials: Iran using Old Tankers to Avoid Sanctions
Iran is using old tankers and alliances with foreign companies to avoid Western sanctions and ship oil to China, officials involved with the sanctions program told Reuters.
Eight old ships, each capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, have loaded Iranian oil in ship-to-ship transfers at sea, according to shipping documents provided to Reuters by the officials.
"The tankers have been used for Iranian crude," one official said. "They are part of Iran's sanctions-busting strategy."
Greek businessman Dimitris Cambis bought the ships, which might otherwise have been scrapped, last year, but he denies involvement with the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) or other Iranian interests.
"There is no Iranian vessel that has done any [ship-to-ship transfer] STS with us," Cambis said.
"We have nothing to do with NITC."
But documents provided to Reuters show incidents involving the eight ships, including one in December in which NITC tanker Marigold loaded Iranian crude onto one of Cambis's ships, the Leycothea, off Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, and the Leycothea later called at Zhanjiang oil terminal in China.
By loading at sea, vessels can pick up crude oil without visiting its country of origin, and sanctions law experts said shipowners operating outside the European Union (EU) have no clear obligation to follow EU rules against buying Iranian oil, although they might be penalised by insurers or banks for violating sanctions.
"Such ships would be used to delete traces of a trade taking place," said one London-based ship broker.
Iran's own tankers can carry more than 72 million barrels of oil, but analysts said the additional 16 million barrel capacity from the eight tankers could help the country to sell more oil.
Iran says it has expanded its exports of fuel oil and petrochemicals, but is reducing its dependence on oil revenues in the next budget bill and is planning to diversify its revenue sources.
