Iran’s armada of tankers carrying 820,000 barrels of gasoline made it to Venezuela, where they are piling up to dump their cargo onto the Caracas market. The Islamic Republic has recently been reported to have received “gold bullion” in exchange for supplying Venezuela’s energy needs.
Tehran is not shy about boasting about its accomplishment of having sent the tankers to Venezuela for the second time this year. Earlier this year, the US interdicted a shipment of gasoline to Venezuela and waylaid ships in August.
The latest armada is made up of a three-vessel group, Iran’s media says. Iran is chuffed that it got the tankers around the US sanctions, with Press TV bragging about the “defiance” of the American sanctions. The Forrest was the first tanker to arrive, with the Faxon and Fortune coming in close behind. They will get to Caracas in early October. The Forrest was carrying 270,000 barrels, according to Iranian media.
According to the report, a massive Iranian oil tanker, known as one of the very large crude carriers (VLCC), is supposed to leave Venezuela with 1.9 million barrels of oil destined for Iran as well.
According to Fars News, “the deepening of economic cooperation between the countries that have been sanctioned by the United States, in addition to opening a new economic space for these countries, seriously challenges the imposition of sanctions, and therefore the United States has reacted sharply to this cooperation.”
Iran is boasting about the gas deliveries and the oil coming in return as part of its overall boasting about getting around US sanctions.