That Iranian Crude Wandering the Med? Seems Iran has Sold It

Iran’s state-owned IRIB news agency quoted a government spokesman on Monday as saying that the Iranian oil aboard a supertanker currently wandering the Mediterranean had been sold to an unnamed party, apparently in an effort to circumvent western sanctions to find a buyer. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has sold the oil of this ship and now the owner and purchaser of this oil will decide the destination of the cargo,” the spokesman, Ali Rabiei, was quoted as saying. The vessel, apparently owned by Iran, was called the Grace 1 when it was impounded by Gibraltar on July 4 in the belief that it was headed to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions. It was released on August 18, after which it headed east. Greece later refused to allow it access to its Kalamata port. In addition, shipping records that once showed Turkey as a destination no longer indicate this. In the interim, the tanker was renamed the Adrian Darya 1, possibly as part of the effort to find a port. After Gibraltar released it, the US threatened to seize the vessel over alleged links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Washington declared a “terrorist” organization in April. It is known that the Trump Administration is seeking to end the purchase of all Iranian-produced oil as part of sanctions it reintroduced after withdrawing from the 2015 deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear drive.