Sunday, February 26, 2012

Iran Stops Shipment of Oil to Greece – Fars News Agency

UPDATE: Iran Denies Blocking Oil Shipment to Greece

UPDATE II: Fars Insists Iran Refrained from Delivering Oil to Greeks

Iran has refused to give Greece a shipment of 500,000 barrels of crude oil in a retaliatory measure against the planned EU embargo of Iranian oil, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported today.

“Oil tankers that had come to transfer 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil to a refinery in Greece had to go back empty-handed after Iran refused to give the shipment.” [Fars News Agency, 26 February].

But Hellenic Petroleum, the Greek refiner and importer of Iranian oil, said in a statement released after the publication of Fars report that Iran has not refused any crude shipment to the company and supplies have been processed “normally.” [Reuters, 26 February].

Iran’s Oil Ministry has not yet confirmed the report. Last week, Fars News Agency published a report on Iran’s immediate ban of oil exports to Greece, only to be refuted by the oil ministry. Iran, however, stopped selling crude to British and French companies.

Reuters reported on Friday that Swiss-based Totsa, the trading arm of French oil major Total, and trading houses Glencore and Mercuria were in separate negotiations with Hellenic Petroleum to help it replace Iranian crude. Hellenic would pay back the traders with refined products, which could then be sold in Greece or abroad.

UPDATE: The Iranian oil officials said Sunday Iran had not blocked an oil shipment to Greece, denying an earlier report by the country’s semi-official Fars News Agency that it had done so in retaliation to the planned EU oil embargo against the country.

“There has been no change in Iran's oil shipment to Greece or any other country. No changes in our shipment schedule,” said Pirouz Mousavi, managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Co. [ISNA, 26 February].

UPDATE II: In the newest twist on the report of Iran’s refusal, or lack of, to supply 500,000 barrels of crude to Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency in a new dispatch insisted that Iran indeed refrained from supplying oil to the Greeks.

Fars reports that most of Iran’s oil deliveries to European refiners take place outside Iranian ports, reportedly from an Iranian tanker to a European one, and on Sunday when the Hellenic tanker arrived at the point of delivery, Iran refused and the tanker was sent back empty.

Earlier, a spokesman for Iran’s oil ministry had refuted Fars’s report, saying that the deliveries to European companies were proceeding “normally.” Fars now asserts that the oil ministry’s statement was misleading and it was meant only for deliveries at Iranian ports.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear!! What a tangled web we weave when we first learn to cheat and deceive.

This is not how the script was suppose to play out..The EU was suppose to sanction/embargo Iran and Iran was suppose to run to the EU and beg them to lift sanctions.Then the EU will eventually "show mercy" for Iran's "compliance(whatever that means)" and lift sanctions..Everybody will save face and Obama and EU politicians will score points on foreign policy "success" at home.Trouble is, this script was written in Tel Aviv and Washington(Hollywood to be precise) where reality is only a dream.

All the assorted EU poodles, wanting to prove their reliability as the best puppet credentials to Washington, happily jumped on-board.Washington is never short of coalition of the idiots(willing). Obama wanted to pull a fast one so he went on TV and told Americans oil prices are rising because of Iran.No sh*t!!!

Oil prices will rise and Obama will still have the nerve to blame Iran for it and justify pentagon's appetite to rip Americans off of protection(defence) money..What a sad state of affairs...Just another day in global politics.

Obama could easily have been a one term president..But, in sudden twist of fate, all the republicans candidates make Obama look like Einstein.Hate to admit it but Bush seem like a university professor now.

Anonymous said...

news retracted

Nader Uskowi said...

Did Iran refused to deliver 500,000 barrels of crude oil to Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum earlier this morning? Fars News Agency, the country’s semi-official news agency, very close to the ruling circles, said so. An Iranian oil official refuted the report and said all deliveries to the Greeks were taking place normally. Fars came back and refuted the official, saying the deliveries happened outside Iranian ports, from a tanker to another, and Iran indeed sent back Hellenic tanker empty.

In the charged political atmosphere of Iran these days, we cannot even know simple facts with any degree of certainty, as did Iran sell 500,000 barrels to crude to Greece on Sunday or not. Needless to say this is frustrating for us as bloggers, and hope the readers of this blog understand that we took care not to mislead them on the story, but at the end of the day we depend on Iranian officials and official and semi-official news agencies to report on government’s actions and announcements.

Anonymous said...

From the outside, it appears the sanctions against Iran have no effect; At least that is what Iran is trying to indicate. In my opinion, the sanctions against the Irainan government is creating distrupition within the government. Time will tell how well this tactic will work.

Z

Stranger said...

Iran using oil speculation as a weapon

a good useful high capitalism