Page 42 - IRANRptDec19

Ratification in Iran is down to political infighting by different factions over supposed Russian attempts to claim “Iran’s half” of the Caspian Sea. The Rouhani administration has dismissed this perspective, citing other countries which also share the body of water. Several non-aligned nationalist groups in Iran believe Tehran has ceded much of its Caspian Sea territory to Russia in exchange for support against the US sanctions and “maximum pressure” campaign directed at Iran.
Rouhani told Mustafayev that the Islamic Republic intends to follow up on the implementation of joint oil exploration and extraction projects in the Caspian Sea and hopes that the issues involved would be closely scrutinised at the meeting of their countries’ joint commission, official energy news agency SHANA reported.
He also reportedly emphasised that Iran is pursuing bilateral and trilateral relations to further develop Tehran-Baku and Tehran-Moscow and Tehran-Baku-Moscow relations and “seeks to strengthen the transit route between our two countries and cooperation in the field of energy and electricity”.
The presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan signed protocols for the development of the ​Caspian Sea deep-water oil block claimed by both sides​, ​SHANA reported on June 2, 2018. The two countries agreed to recover the oil on a 50/50 basis. Khazar (Caspian) Exploration and Production Co. (KEPCO) was lined up to run Iran’s side of the contract should it go ahead.
Digital marine vessel tracking agency Tankertrackers.com has told​bne IntelliNews​ that claims from Iran that it is managing to sell significant levels of crude despite the US attempting to push its oil exports to zero are not without foundation.
Iran has very much moved its oil sales into the grey market to avoid US sanctions, meaning analysts partly rely on satellite-technology tracking firms to observe the ebb and flow of tankers leaving Iran’s ports and watch their movements.
“Lately, Iran’s two main destinations for its crude oil have been China and Syria. In addition to that, refined products ‘bounce’ via certain trading hubs as they cannot be chemically traced,” Samir Madani, CEO of Tankertrackers.com, said on December 2.
“Recently, we have also seen a small amount of heavy crude do the same [kind of ‘bounce’] and it is most likely for it to be blended ahead of re-export. All in all, crude plus products are being shipped at a rate of around 700,000 barrels per day,” he added.
Madani declined to discuss what manoeuvres Iran’s oil exports might be involved in but there have been plenty of reports in recent months of the Iranians attempting to make ship-to-ship transfers of oil off the radar and depositing oil in storage facilities outside customs zones, from where further movements of the commodity can be hard to assess and trace.
Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri was quoted as saying on December 2 by state TV that the US plan to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero can be described as a failure.
That meant, he added, that Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign spearheaded by crushing sanctions aimed at Tehran has also failed.
“Despite America’s pressure ... and its imposed sanctions on our oil exports, we still continue to sell our oil by using other means ... when even friendly countries have stopped purchasing our crude fearing America’s penalties,” the vice president said.
US President Donald Trump and his officials are attempting to throttle Iran’s
42​ IRAN Country Report​ December 2019 www.intellinews.com