Iran oil sales bypass curbs
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DUBAI, Nov 11, (RTRS): Iran sold 700,000 barrels of crude oil to private companies for export on Sunday in a second round of sales aimed at countering US sanctions on the country’s exports, oil ministry news website SHANA reported.
Three unnamed companies paid $64.97 per barrel for two crude shipments of 245,000 barrels each and one shipment of 210,000 barrels, which were traded on Iran’s energy bourse, SHANA reported. Iran began selling crude oil to private companies for export in late October, just ahead of US sanctions on sectors including oil which came into effect on Nov 5. Crude oil trade is state-controlled in Iran.
Earlier, private refining companies could only buy crude oil for exports of oil products. Iran said in July it would start oil sales to private firms as part of its efforts to keep exporting oil and would take other measures to counter sanctions after the United States told allies to cut all imports of Iranian oil from November.
Iranian special courts set up in a drive against economic crime have sentenced two people to death, state media said on Sunday, as the country faces renewed US sanctions and a public outcry against profiteering and corruption.
The fast-track Islamic revolutionary courts were set up in August after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for “swift and just” legal action to confront an “economic war” by foreign enemies. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by the judiciary’s news website Mizan, said the courts had handed down death sentences on two defendants after convicting them of “spreading corruption on earth”, a capital offence under Iran’s Islamic laws.
In September, the courts handed down three death sentences on similar charges. Ejei said on Sunday that 11 more defendants had received jail terms of up to 10 years for “economic corruption”, and a judge was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 75 lashes for taking bribes. Iranian officials have accused archfoes the United States and Israel, as well as regional rival Saudi Arabia and government opponents living in exile, of fomenting unrest and waging an economic war to destabilise Iran.
The rial currency has lost about 70 percent of its value in 2018 under the threat of the revived US sanctions, with heavy demand for dollars and gold coins on the unofficial market from ordinary Iranians trying to protect their savings. Ejei said 96 people had been arrested for charges linked to illegal trading in hard currencies or gold, Mizan reported.
The cost of living has also soared, provoking sporadic demonstrations against profiteering and corruption, with many protesters chanting anti-government slogans. Last Monday, the United States restored sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking and transportation sectors and threatened more action to stop its “outlaw” policies, steps the Islamic Republic called economic warfare and vowed to defy. In August, Washington reimposed a first round of sanctions after pulling out of a 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
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