The U.S Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on a network facilitating Iranian oil trade.
This network was run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said, who used ship-to-ship transfers and other techniques to hide his activities. His companies blended Iranian oil with Iraqi oil and sold it to Western buyers as purely Iraqi oil using forged documents to avoid sanctions.
These sanctions were imposed to block the network and prevent Iran from evading international sanctions on its exports.
To block the Said’s network, OFAC has imposed sanctions on several entities.
Among them are: UAE-based company, VS Tankers FZE, which smuggles oil for the Iranian government and IRGC; VS Oil Terminal FZE manages six oil storage tanks, where Iranian oil is stored before being mixed with Iraqi oil; Singapore-based Trans Arctic Global Marine Services PTE LTD has enabled NITC to transport tens of millions of barrels of Iranian oil through Strait of Malacca.
