Biden’s sanctions on Iranian barrels non-starter from beginning
By Mostafa Shirmohamadi
Editor-in-chief
The US Treasury and the State Department tightened the rope around Iran’s petroleum industry on Friday, slapping new sanctions on several foreign companies and tankers accused of facilitating the sale and transportation of Iranian crude oil.
The move was in response to Iran’s second missile attack on Israel earlier in the month. The Biden administration had already tried to choke off Iranian oil exports following Iran’s first-ever strike on Israel in mid-April by imposing sanctions that would penalize financial institutions, tankers, ports, and refineries involved in oil trade with the Islamic Republic.
However, efforts to curb Iran’s oil sales have so far fallen flat. According to data from monitoring and analytics firms, sanctions introduced in April utterly failed to make a dent in Iran’s oil exports.
Last year, Iran shipped an average 1.46 million barrels per day and after the Biden administration’s sanctions came into effect in April, Iranian barrels were still forcing their way into the global market.
Iran’s daily oil exports even surged to 1.7 million bpd between July and September, according to Vortexa, an international consultancy that monitors tanker flows. Belgian analytics group Kpler put the sales in September at 1.83 million bpd, making it a bumper month when the exports hit a six-year high.
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