The supertanker Achilleas, which the US seized last year and accused of smuggling Iranian oil to China, was actually filled with Iraqi oil exactly as the paperwork claimed, according to new filings from the company that owned the oil and hired the tanker.
The company in question, Fujairah International, is wholly owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed al-Sharqi, the leader of the Fujairah emirate, which is part of the UAE. They contracted to take the oil to China on the Achilleas.
The oil went from ship to ship a few times before getting to Achilleas, and its origin listed it as Basra oil, from Iraq. The US, however, saw it and concluded it was from Iran, and the Revolutionary Guard, and that this meant the US could take it.
Fujairah explained the ship-to-ship transfers as common during the ongoing covid recession, and that a lot of countries are parking oil in ships offshore. This is very true, and they argue that they got the oil legitimately from Iraq, not Iran.
While this is being approached as part of a difficult US-Iran relationship, the signs are this may not be an issue with Iran at all. They insisted from the start it wasn’t their oil, and this might well be the case.
Wasn’t that a piracy?
They should be able to test the oil, and know right away which field it is from.
Yes. Whether it s sweet crude or sour crude.
Oil is much more identifiable than just that. They can tell exactly which field it came from.
And the U.S. discharged the oil as fast as possible before doing any testing. Hmm …. I wonder if we are going to compensate and pay interest for the time value of the lost use of the tanker (no).
>The Al-Fakkah Field, also known as Jebel Al-Fauqi or Jebal Al-Fauqi, is an oil field located in southern Iraq’s Maysan Governorate and Khūzestān Province, Iran — wiki
>Iran has diplomatic ties with UAE and reacted when UAE announced ties with Israel, but Iran has maintained ties with UAE.
That shot the pathetic line about “freedom of navigation” patrols all over the world, especially the South China Sea.