EMEA News
US Treasury Sanctions Five Companies for Shipping Iranian Refined Products to the UAE
The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned five UAE-based companies for facilitating the export of Iranian refined products and petrochemicals, it said Thursday.
OFAC designated Petro Grand FZE, Alphabet International DMCC, Swissol Trade DMCC, Alam Althrwa General Trading LLC and Alwaneo LLC Co., saying they collectively bought hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of refined productions from the National Iranian Oil Company for delivery to the UAE.
The addition of these companies to the OFAC list will cut them off from companies that do business in or with the US.
Thursday's announcement appears mostly to be related to the petrochemicals business, but OFAC's move towards refined products when previously it took more interest in crude oil exports from Iran may have implications for the bunker industry.
Within the Middle East it is widely assumed that at least a small share of the bunker fuel sold at Fujairah is of Iranian origin despite sanctions, and there may be an effect on supply at the Middle Eastern hub if this assumption turns out to be true and the US authorities seek to crack down on it.
