BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Government has imposed sanctions on Iran's Minister of Petroleum, Mohsen Paknejad, and a number of service providers that facilitate Iran's crude oil trade.
The companies targeted by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control include Chinese and Indian, for their ownership or operation of vessels that have delivered Iranian oil to China, or lifted Iranian oil from storage facilities in the Chinese port of Dalian.
These companies provide services to the ghost fleet vessels conducting ship-to-ship transfer operations outside port limits in Southeast Asia, and enabling Iran's attempts to disguise its illicit oil trade.
The sanctioned companies are Hong Kong-based Hong Kong Heshun Transportation Trading Limited, Seasky Marine Co., Limited, and Sun Science International Co., Limited; Seychelles-registered Fallon Shipping Company Limited and Turquoise Sea Marine Limited; Bangladesh-based Aren Ship Management; Suriname-based Sea Services Providers NV; Liberia-registered Itaugua Services Inc; Marshall Islands-registered Neptune Marine Ltd, Celestite Maritime Inc. and United Tankers Ltd; China-based Huaxia Trading Ltd; India-based Lake View Ship Management Private Limited; and Sri Lanka-based Marine Solution Pvt Ltd.
Separately, the U.S. Department of State is designating three companies, and is identifying three vessels as blocked property. Singapore-based Shipload Maritime PTE. Ltd. and Indonesia-based PT. Bintang Samudra Utama and PT. Gianira Adhinusa Senatama are being designated for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum products from Iran.
Minister Paknejad oversees the export of tens of billions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil and has allocated billions of dollars' worth of oil to Iran's armed forces for export.
It includes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces, both used as the regime's tools of oppression. Some 200,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil are allocated to the Iranian armed forces daily to supplement their budget, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The armed forces' annual allocation of Iranian oil is set to increase four-fold, exceeding 10 billion dollars annually and totaling over 500,000 barrels per day. By the end of 2025, more than half of Iran's total oil revenues will be allocated to its armed forces, the Treasury said.
Iran's Ministry of Petroleum and the Iranian armed forces rely on a vast shadow fleet of vessels to disguise oil shipments worth billions of dollars for delivery to China.
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