Oil tanker owned by an American company accused of "illegal transportation of Iranian oil"
An oil tanker owned by a company registered in Los Angeles, USA, has been accused of collaborating in the "illegal transportation of Iranian oil" and violating US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday, February 18, that the "Alliance Against Nuclear Iran" group, in a letter dated Tuesday, accused the American investment company Oaktree of cooperating in the illegal transfer of oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran through a tanker owned by it.
The American giant, whose assets amount to $160 billion, announced on Thursday that it was cooperating with the US government's investigation into the matter.
The Associated Press writes that aerial photos from the "Alliance Against a Nuclear Iran" group show that the tanker belonging to this American company is located in Singapore next to an oil tanker said to be carrying Iranian oil.
Iran uses this method to circumvent sanctions and transfer tanker cargo to other tankers to hide the source and destination of exported oil.
FleetScape, a subsidiary of Oaktree and owner of the Suez Rajan tanker, said in a letter to Reuters that the company uses best practices in its operations to comply with US sanctions laws, takes any reports of non-compliance seriously, and will cooperate with US authorities in their investigations.
The United States is currently negotiating indirectly with Iran, along with other members of the JCPOA, to revive the nuclear agreement, and reports indicate that these negotiations have made progress.
Statistics from tanker tracking companies show that Iran's daily crude oil exports have reached about one million barrels per day in recent months, three times the amount in 2020, and the majority of these shipments are being re-branded as oil from other countries, including Oman, the UAE, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and are being sent to China.
Studies by the "Alliance Against a Nuclear Iran" show that in January, Iran exported 1,447,000 barrels of oil, gas condensate, and petroleum products per day, of which about 923,000 barrels went to China, 106,000 barrels to Syria, and the rest to unknown destinations.
Oil tanker tracking statistics published by this American institution also show that in December last year, Iran delivered cargoes of oil and petroleum products to Venezuela (68,000 barrels per day) and the UAE (44,000 barrels per day), sending a total of 1,318,000 barrels of oil, gas condensate, and petroleum products to international markets, with China accounting for about 66 percent of these shipments.
The report says that in November last year, China alone purchased more than one million barrels per day of Iranian oil, gas condensate, and petroleum products, and Iran exported a total of 1.2 million barrels of oil and petroleum products per day.
Source: Radio Farda
