US Sanctions People, Entities, Ships Moving Iranian Oil
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products, including oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker managers in India and China, and Iranian oil officials. The Treasury Department said the newly designated tankers have helped ship tens of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
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The ships and brokers are part of the “shadowy network” that Iran uses to “fund its destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “The United States will use all our available tools to target all aspects of Iran’s oil supply chain, and anyone who deals in Iranian oil exposes themselves to significant sanctions risk.”
The sanctions come after President Donald Trump earlier this month reinstated his maximum pressure campaign against Iran, ordering U.S. agencies to step up sanctions against the country and rescind sanctions waivers (see 2502050020).
Along with a range of oil brokers and ships, the Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned Hamid Bovard, Iran’s deputy minister of petroleum and CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company, and the Iranian Oil Terminals Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company. OFAC also sanctioned various people and officials connected to Iran’s oil terminals.
In addition, it targeted UAE-based Petroquimico FZE, which it said has bought tens of millions of dollars’ worth of petroleum products from the National Iranian Oil Company, and Hong Kong-based oil broker Petronix Energy Trading Ltd., which has bought hundreds of thousands of metric tons of Iranian oil from the sanctioned Naftiran Intertrade Company, the marketing arm of the National Iranian Oil Company.
OFAC also sanctioned China-based Nycity Shipmanagement Co. Ltd., India-based Flux Maritime LLP and shell companies based in Seychelles for managing ships moving Iranian oil, as well as tankers carrying the flags of Panama, Gabon, the Cook Islands, Eswatini, Gambia and Barbados.