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Iran sells Adrian Darya 1 cargo
middLe east
A spokesman for the Iranian government has told local media that the oil cargo aboard the Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as grace 1, has been sold, though the buyer has not been disclosed.
When asked whether the vessel was sailing for Qatar, Ali Rabiee said: “ e owner of the pur- chased oil would determine at which coast it will berth. I don’t know its destination.”
Rabiee did not allude to the terms of the sale, though at current market rates, the crude oil could be worth around $125mn.
At time of going to press, Adrian Darya 1 was west of Cyprus with its status set as “for order”. It had been destined for Kalamata in greece, then the Turkish port of Mersin, but the apparent buyer has yet to determine the location for the o oad.
Reports over the weekend suggested that the cargo had been sold to Qatar, however, to pass through the Suez Canal it would rst have to o oad at least some of the cargo or to transfer it to smaller vessels. is would o er the bene t of obfuscating the volume of sales to separate buy- ers, but the tanker is likely to need to disable its transponder to hide any such exchanges.
It was impounded during the British Royal navy operation o the coast of gibraltar on July 4 amid suspicions that its 2.1mn barrel oil cargo was headed for Syria.
e Trump administration had attempted to seize the Iranian supertanker, currently moving from port to port in the Mediterranean after being released last week by the gibraltarian gov- ernment. Pressure from the US led to greece refusing to o er the use of its facilities.™
Crimea offers ports for Iran oil sales
middLe east
OFFICIALS in Crimea have o ered Black Sea ports of the disputed territory as export hubs for Iranian oil, according to the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea georgy Muradov, TASS reported on August 27.
Iran is increasingly looking to build trade via Caspian Sea routes as a workaround from ten- sions in the Persian gulf generated by the crush- ing sanctions regime imposed on Tehran by the US, which includes the objective of attempting to force Iranian oil exports to zero. More and more Iranian trade shipments now move along the routes that connect with northern Iran. ey include fast-moving consumer goods and grain consignments.
The Crimean official reportedly said that Iran could use ports of the Crimean Peninsula as a springboard for buyers. He did not discuss how Iran would transport the envisaged oil shipments from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea ports of Crimea, although the two seas are linked by rivers and canals.
“Mutual interest in cooperation between Iran and Crimea is growing, especially given the anti-Iranian American policy, the sanctions that have been imposed on this country, and the related consequences,” he said.
Muradov went on to say: “Some Iranian busi- nessmen are interested in working in Crimea... We have also given signals that we are ready to cooperate fruitfully with Iran, we are consider- ing various options. For example, Iran could use our port facilities for oil transportation.”
He added that due to US sanctions, the Suez Canal, via which Iran has historically shipped most of its Europe-bound oil, has become a
troublesome chokepoint for Iran in recent months. However, European Union sanctions against Russia and Crimea over the Crimea annexation are still in existence, so that might dissuade some Iranian businesses when it comes to doing business with the territory.
In June, nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said that Iran had proposed the creation of a permanent international mechanism to combat sanctions, and “in principle, this proposal was supported”. In April, Crimean o cials o cially put out feelers for Iranian businesses to begin trade with them. Tass reported on August 21 that both Iran and Syria were set to purchase sun ower oil produced in Crimea.
Vladislav Martyanov, CEO of the manage- ment company Food Production Park Crimean gold, made the announcement in the wake of the establishment of a factory to re ne the oil.
“By the end of this year, we will begin deliv- eries of sun ower oil from Crimea to Syria and Iran,” he said, adding that at least 500 tonnes of sun ower oil would be exported per month.
The plant was said to have a production capacity of around 35,000 tonnes of sun ower oil per year. Several regions of Russia have moved to take advantage of Iran’s signing of a tempo- rary free trade agreement with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). It removes or reduces tari s on hundreds of items.
On August 20, a new ferry service between Iran and Russia was announced by Iranian businesses eager to take advantage of access to Russia’s Volga River port of Astrakhan, near northern shores of the Caspian Sea.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 34 29•August•2019