DUBAI: Fuel made from Iranian oil is legally powering thousands of flights a year out of Dubai’s booming airport, despite US pressure on buyers to shun Tehran’s petroleum exports.
It may even fuel US allied military jets in the Middle East. Washington and the European Union have slashed Iran’s exports in half over the last year by leaning on importing countries to find alternative feedstock for their refineries.
Meanwhile, close US ally Dubai, long a major user of Iranian light oil known as condensate, continues to process tens of thousands of barrels a day at an Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) refinery, according to oil industry sources and shipping data. ENOC then pumps the resulting fuel to Dubai airport, the world’s second busiest.
ENOC’s chief executive declined to comment this week on how much Iranian oil the company was still importing and ENOC media relations did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
US and European companies are not allowed to buy any Iranian refined oil products, under tough sanctions imposed by Washington to force Tehran to stop its nuclear activities. But any airline is free to use fuel made from Iranian oil in other countries, because once it passes through a refinery outside Iran it is no longer considered of Iranian origin under sanctions.
“In our view jet fuel from an Emirati refinery is Emirati jet fuel, it is not Iranian no matter what it was made from,” a US government official in Washington said. ENOC says it is the largest provider of jet fuel at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and that its portfolio boasts a growing number of military customers.
One such customer is the US Defence Logistics Agency which supplies planes at the Al Minhad airbase near Dubai, a hub for US-allied forces in the Middle East.
Reuters
