Bi-Honar
07-13-2010, 04:45 AM
Illegal oil exports flourish in the region
Tamsin Carlisle
The National (UAE)
July 12. 2010
Middle East oil smuggling is flourishing as governments fail to tackle big problems including unsecured borders, fuel subsidies, corruption and trade sanctions. The latest cases to surface involve the smuggling of oil products from Iraq and Saudi Arabia under two different sets of circumstances that highlight a systemic regional problem. On Sunday, the government of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region said it was clamping down on fuel smuggling across its mountainous borders with Iran and Turkey.
The government pledged to co-operate with Baghdad “to eliminate permanently all such profiteering … along the entirety of Iraq’s international borders”. The statement followed an urgent request from Baghdad for talks with the Kurdistan regional government about the growing flow of oil products eastwards in defiance of new US sanctions against Iran.
Oil smuggling through Kurdistan has increased in the past year, since the US began pressuring its trade partners to curb exports of refined oil products such as petrol, diesel and fuel oil to Iran in a prelude to the recent announcement of new sanctions. A number of international oil refiners that operate in the US, including India’s Vitol and the European Royal Dutch Shell, complied with Washington’s request, exacerbating Iranian fuel shortages....
... The Iranian National Revolutionary Guard, which supports the regime in Tehran, has previously been implicated in smuggling oil products into southern Iran through UAE ports including Fujairah and Jebel Ali.
Tamsin Carlisle
The National (UAE)
July 12. 2010
Middle East oil smuggling is flourishing as governments fail to tackle big problems including unsecured borders, fuel subsidies, corruption and trade sanctions. The latest cases to surface involve the smuggling of oil products from Iraq and Saudi Arabia under two different sets of circumstances that highlight a systemic regional problem. On Sunday, the government of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region said it was clamping down on fuel smuggling across its mountainous borders with Iran and Turkey.
The government pledged to co-operate with Baghdad “to eliminate permanently all such profiteering … along the entirety of Iraq’s international borders”. The statement followed an urgent request from Baghdad for talks with the Kurdistan regional government about the growing flow of oil products eastwards in defiance of new US sanctions against Iran.
Oil smuggling through Kurdistan has increased in the past year, since the US began pressuring its trade partners to curb exports of refined oil products such as petrol, diesel and fuel oil to Iran in a prelude to the recent announcement of new sanctions. A number of international oil refiners that operate in the US, including India’s Vitol and the European Royal Dutch Shell, complied with Washington’s request, exacerbating Iranian fuel shortages....
... The Iranian National Revolutionary Guard, which supports the regime in Tehran, has previously been implicated in smuggling oil products into southern Iran through UAE ports including Fujairah and Jebel Ali.