EMEA News
Iran Fuel Oil Exports Rise Despite Sanctions
Iran increased its fuel oil exports in the second half of the year, compared with the first, despite new European Union (EU) sanctions that more than halved its crude exports, Reuters reports.
New EU rules on oil and shipping insurance reduced the nation's bunker sales when they were first introduced in July, traders and analysts told Reuters, but middlemen and Iranian oil officials have since found ways around the sanctions.
Iran sold an average of 648,000 tonnes of fuel oil per month from July to October, compared with 636,000 tonnes between January and June, bringing in an average of $410 million per month.
At the same time, Iran has lost $3.8 billion in monthly crude export revenues since July.
"The National Iranian Oil Company has been very successful in finding new strategies to circumvent sanctions and sold its fuel oil to Asia in August and September," Salar Moradi, oil analyst at FACTS Global Energy, told Reuters.
"Now we think Middle Eastern buyers of Iranian fuel oil have reappeared."
Gulf-based middlemen have been using ship-to-ship transfers, blending Iranian fuel oil with other fuels, and moving the oil through remote ports.
Several Middle Eastern traders told Reuters they had been approached by small companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) marketing what appears to be Iranian oil as a product of Iraq.
"This Iranian fuel oil, disguised as Iraqi origin, has been flooding the market in Fujairah and depressing both cargo and bunker premiums in September," a Middle East-based trader said.
Sources in Fujairah said this fall that Iranian Product was "killing the bunker market" there.
