Iranian oil tankers using forged Iraqi documents, says Iraq’s oil minister

Iraq’s Oil Minister, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, has said that Iranian oil tankers seized by US forces in the Gulf were using forged Iraqi documents, Reuters has reported.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has restored “maximum pressure” on Iran, reviving a policy that seeks to isolate the country from the global economy and eliminate its oil export revenue in order to slow Tehran’s alleged development of a nuclear weapon.

Abdel-Ghani was asked if he had received messages from the United States over the possibility that Iraq’s State Organisation for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) could be subject to sanctions itself over the violation of Iranian sanctions.

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“We received some verbal inquiries about oil tankers being detained in the Gulf by US naval forces carrying Iraqi shipping manifests,” said the minister on state television late on Sunday, adding there had been no formal written communication. “It turned out that these tankers were Iranian… and were using forged Iraqi documents. We explained this to the relevant authorities with complete transparency and they also confirmed this.”

The Iranian oil ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran views neighbour and ally Iraq as vital for keeping its economy afloat while under sanctions. However, Baghdad is a partner to both Washington and Tehran, and is wary of being caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s policy to squeeze Iran, sources have said.

Reuters reported in December that a sophisticated fuel oil smuggling network that some experts believe generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has flourished in Iraq in the past few years, including by using forged documentation.

SOMO sells crude exclusively to companies that own refineries and does not supply trading firms, said Abdel-Ghani, adding that several traders were behind the scheme. “SOMO operates with full transparency and has committed no wrongdoing in the oil export process.”

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