Iran uses Malaysia to sell oil overseas

According to US government officials, Iran is using the aid of service providers based in Malaysia to evade US sanctions and sell oil overseas.

“Iran's oil transportation capacity has depended on these kinds of service providers based in Malaysia. We would like to discuss it directly with Malaysians,” he added, as quoted by AFP.

The official also said, “The suspension of these oil shipments will be a serious blow to Iran's ability to fund attacks around the world, including Houthi attacks currently threatening commercial vessels.”

Since the Trump administration re-introduced sanctions against Tehran in 2018, the United States has been trying to block Iran's oil exports. So far, however, the effort has had little success. This is particularly because sanctions were not imposed for at least part of that period. For that reason, there is sufficient motivation to take the risk that oil supply will be tight and enforce sanctions more strictly.

As a result, Iran is actually expanding its oil exports. In the first quarter of this year, these reached a six-year high average of 1.56 million barrels per day, and almost all of them were sold to China.

“Iranians have learned how to evade sanctions,” Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk services at Lapidan Energy Group, told FT in April. “If the Biden administration is really going to exert influence, we need to shift our focus to China.”

So-called dark tanker fleets have contributed to this expansion of exports, as has the creation of a network of partners and service providers to transport oil.

“Iran is continuously developing and expanding not only its network of intermediaries and trading companies involved in the sale of crude oil, but also its own tanker fleet, which is mainly used to transport crude oil,” said Nadel Itime, the Middle East editor-in-chief of Argus. I told Radio Free Europe earlier this month.