Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Iran's first homegrown oil tanker

In a bid to circumvent Western nuclear sanctions, Iran has built its first domestic aframax oil tanker. The tanker, which can carry 700,000 barrels of oil, was ordered by Venezuela, according to Iran's Fars news agency.

"The production of the aframax ship is the first export shipbuilding activity of Iran, and we must continue by attracting more customers," said Mehdi Etesam, managing director of Iran Maritime Industrial Company SADRA, reported Fars.

The U.S. Treasury imposed additional sanctions in March on SADRA, saying the firm was owned by Khatam al-Anbiya, an engineering company the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses to fund its operations. According to Treasury, the Revolutionary Guard plays a key role in Iran's nuclear programs, supports terrorism and is guilty of human rights violations.

An EU ban on Iranian oil and insurance has hurt the country's ability to sell its oil.

Iran claims it is not developing nuclear weapons.

For more of the Reuters story: www.reuters.com

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