BNE:

Iran’s oil minister has openly admitted forging oil documents to hide the origin of Iranian cargoes of crude that might otherwise not find a market because of US sanctions.

“What we export is not under Iran’s name. The documents are changed over and over, as well as specifications,” Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying in parliament by the website of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Since early last year, the US has been attempting to use sanctions to meet its stated goal of driving all Iranian crude shipments off world export markets. Earlier this week, Zanganeh described the ultra-aggressive economic policy as like waging a “war without blood”.

Working out how much oil Iran has continued to export on the grey market despite Washington’s efforts is a complex question for analysts.

On September 25, Reuters reported that three assessments based on tanker tracking showed that this month Iranian oil exports have risen sharply.

“Way up”

“Exports are way up right now. We are seeing close to 1.5 million bpd in both crude and condensate so far this month,” Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, told the news agency. “These are levels we haven’t seen in a year and a half.”

The amount was twice that of August, TankerTrackers data reportedly showed, and around 11% of it was ultra light crude, known as condensate.

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