OFFICIALS IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES BENEFIT FROM OIL SMUGGLING

OFFICIALS IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES BENEFIT FROM OIL SMUGGLING
iran report: 21 December 1998

One of the problems the Iranian economy is facing is reduced foreign revenues due to decreasing oil prices and worsening foreign exchange rates. It now appears that Iran is at the nexus of regional petrochemical smuggling operations. Iran allows Iraqi oil to pass through its coastal waters en route to the United Arab Emirates, where it is transshipped to further destinations. Also, Iranian refined products are smuggled into Pakistan and Afghanistan. And these smuggling operations, it has been suggested by some observers, have the approval of officials on all sides of the borders.

Iranian government spokesman Hassan Ghadiri Abyaneh, for example, recently told IRNA that smugglers of oil and finished petrochemical products into Iran make a 1,000- 3,000% profit, due to demand generated by excessive domestic consumption. He went on to complain that Iran’s neighbors permitted smuggling into Iran, and they also permitted smuggling of Iranian products into their countries. Apparently, the problem has become so serious that, on 14 December, the governor-general of Tehran Province announced the pending formation of a committee of officials from the National Iranian Oil Company, and the Ministries of Oil, Industry, and Agriculture “to confront smuggling.” ...

Dr. Ghadiri Abyaneh
http://www.ghadiri.org/archives/000249.html