US looks to crack down on Iran’s booming oil industry

The Cradle, August 14, 2024 — 

Despite years of sanctions on Iranian energy, Tehran’s oil exports have recently surged

Washington is considering measures to further crack down on Iranian oil exports, Politico reported on 13 August. 

“Sanctions evasion is very costly – paying middlemen, laundering money, and so on. We assess that the Iranian regime receives only a fraction of the revenue from its oil sales as a result,” an unnamed State Department spokesman told the outlet. 

However, new efforts to put pressure on Iranian oil revenues are being reviewed. “As Iran continues to escalate tensions in the region, we will work with partners to further pressure Iran and reduce their oil exports.”

Iranian oil exports hit a six-year high earlier this year, reaching an average of 1.56 million barrels of oil per day throughout the first quarter. 

Despite harsh western sanctions, Iran’s crude oil exports have surged by 30 percent in the last quarter, and its fossil fuel shipments reached a five-year high, according to data from the Kpler analytics firm. 

Reuters reported earlier in August that shipments of Iranian oil have been reaching new customers, including Oman and Bangladesh. 

The US has imposed harsh sanctions on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, particularly on trade and energy. These sanctions are linked to a spike in illegal smuggling in the Persian Gulf. 

In recent years, Washington has illegally plundered several shipments of Iranian oil, framing the seizures as sanctions-enforcement operations. 

As a result, Tehran called last year for the establishment of a maritime security belt with fellow member states of the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). 

The Politico report came as Washington has been looking to stimy Iran’s response to the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month. 

Iran has vowed a harsh retaliation, as has Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah to the killing of its top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut a day before Haniyeh’s assassination. 

As a result, concerns over the outbreak of an all-out regional war have increased.