Iranian Official Slams Massive Oil Discounts To Evade Sanctions

Majid Ansari, in an interview with ILNA news website in Tehran on Monday, highlighted the questionable practices of a clandestine group reportedly evading sanctions to sell Iranian oil. He stated that they claim to bypass sanctions by using "diversionary paths," transporting 1.3 million barrels of oil daily at “discounts ranging from $15 to $30 per barrel, averaging a $20 discount per barrel.”

That would total more than $25 million per day, or more than $9 billion annually, while Iran suffers from a serious shortage of hard currencies for essential imports.

Ansari questioned the transparency of such operations, demanding the identities of those involved in the oil sales to be made public. He criticized the lack of disclosure, citing arguments that revealing the sellers would alert "enemies," and naming buyers would cause them to withdraw due to US monitoring.

The United States announced third-party sanctions against countries and businesses engaging in trading Iranian oil after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2028. Trump demanded re-negotiations over Iran's nuclear program and a change in Tehran's aggressive regional behavior.

Iran's oil exports plummeted from more than two million barrels per day to less than 300,000 by 2019, drastically reducing its main source of foreign currency income. However, after President Joe Biden signaled his intention to return to the nuclear agreement, China began buying large quantities of Iran oil and shipments reached 1.3 million in 2023. Iran International reported earlier in the day that Tehran's oil exports have surpassed 1.5 million barrels in recent months.

Further, Ansari expressed frustration over the secrecy surrounding financial details. He stated that when asked about the selling price, the response was that it is "confidential." Regarding the money deposits, it was claimed that the US has sanctioned the banks, but the money returns through exchange offices, the ownership of which remains "confidential." The bulk of the money is in one country, presumably China, which does not pay in cash and instead offers to sell its goods to Iran. The importers of these goods also remain anonymous.

In the past decade, several large corruption scandals emerged in Iran related to circumvention of oil sanctions, with one individual arrested and accused of pocketing $2.7 billion of oil export proceeds.

Ansari highlighted the financial loss to the Iranian people due to oil discounts, stating that 1.3 million barrels of oil per day at a $20 discount results in a daily loss of $26 million for Iranian citizens, farmers, and the government. "This is a huge loss to our nation," he emphasized.

During recent presidential election campaigns, some hardline candidates, including ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, boasted about increased oil sales under late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month. However, former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif criticized the narrative during a TV roundtable, arguing that the increase was due to the lenient policies of the Biden administration rather than domestic achievements.