LONDON: Iran is quietly mobilising more ships to store and transport oil, aiming to keep its fields working and mitigate losses of several billion dollars a month from sanctions which remain in place for at least another six months, trade sources familiar with the matter say.
While a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme was reached on Sunday with six world powers in exchange for limited sanctions relief in other areas, oil market officials say Iran will not be able to ramp up exports quickly.
“Even if they relax these regulations, it is not going to result in a massive increase in Iran’s oil exports. It is a short-term alleviation and it is no more than that,” said Mehdi Varzi, a former official at the state-run National Iranian Oil Co.
In the meantime, Iran is deploying more vessels to help store oil at sea and to enable it to conclude discreet sales by transferring cargoes to customers’ ships in mid-ocean without having to enter port, the sources say. With its tanker fleet boosted by newly built vessels from Chinese yards, Iran is shipping crude to countries including China, India and Syria.
“Iran will try and export its crude to any country that will accept it and if that involves methods to conceal how it is done, they will do it,” said Varzi, who now runs an energy consultancy in Britain. “Any country would do the same if they faced Iran’s horrendous economic situation.”
The deal struck in Geneva leaves U.S. and European oil sanctions in place for six months, although an easing of a ban on European ship insurance may ease the transport of current oil exports to Iran’s big Asian customers.
Foreign shipping companies, fearing a loss of business in Western nations because of sanctions, have backed off from deals with Iran. This has put the onus on Iran’s main tanker operator, NITC, but sanctions have restricted its access to insurance and the certification that allows its ships to call at major ports.
Among vessels now being used by Iran are some previously controlled by Irano Hind, an Indian-Iranian joint venture recently wound up due to sanctions, trade sources said. The former company’s fleet included at least three oil tankers. Trade sources said one of those vessels, the Ramtin, which shipping databases showed was now Iranian-flagged, had made at least one ship-to-ship transfer off the coast of Singapore and Malaysia last month.
Ship-tracking data showed the vessel had called at Iran’s Larak Island oil terminal in September. Ramtin’s India-based manager, Marian Ship Management, could not be reached for comment.
Ship-tracking information shows that Iran has aimed to provide assistance to its main regional ally, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Another former Irano Hind vessel, the Iranian-flagged Tour 2, delivered crude oil to Syria last month, port loading and ship tracking data showed. The vessel’s Iran-based owner, Auris Marine, could not be reached for comment.
A further three tankers controlled by NITC also made deliveries to Syria last month, data showed. A senior NITC official said “we are doing the same as we have done in the past three years - transporting oil”.
Separately, the Falcon Pride oil tanker has made regular runs between Iran’s Assaluyeh anchorage to the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, carrying Iranian light oil, known as condensate, ship tracking and trade sources said. Reuters
