Treasury Department sanctions company for blending Iranian oil

Sept. 2 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned a network of United Arab Emirates-based companies for illegally selling Iranian oil by blending it with Iraqi oil.

The companies and ships are owned and controlled by Waleed al-Samarra’i, a citizen of Iraq and St. Kitts and Nevis. His companies, Babylon Navigation and Galaxy Oil, are accused of making ship-to-ship transfers in the Arabian Gulf and in Iraqi ports to blend Iranian and Iraqi oil to sidestep sanctions against Iran, the Treasury Department said in a press release.

Based on conservative estimates, al-Samarra’i’s network generates around $300 million of value to Iran and its partners annually, the Treasury Department said.

“Iraq cannot become a safe haven for terrorists, which is why the United States is working to counter Iran’s influence in the country,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a statement. “By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies. We remain committed to an oil supply free from Iran and will continue our efforts to disrupt the ongoing attempts by Tehran to evade U.S. sanctions.”

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned another shipping company on July 3 run by Salim Ahmed Said, which also allegedly smuggled blended Iraqi and Iranian oil and generated significant revenue for Iran.

Babylon handles the logistics and shipping of al-Samarra’i’s operations, and Galaxy Oil is the main trader of al-Samarra’i’s energy products on the global market.

To smuggle the Iranian-origin oil, al-Samarra’i uses a group of vessels operated by Babylon — the Liberia-flagged Adena, Liliana, Camilla, Delfina, Bianca, Roberta, Alexandra, Bellagio, and Paola — to blend Iranian and Iraqi oil at sea.

While Babylon manages and operates these vessels, al-Samarra’i uses a number of Marshall Islands-based shell companies, including Tryfo Navigation, Keely Shiptrade, Odiar Management, Panarea Marine and Topsail Shipholding, as the owners of these vessels.

Al-Samarra’i’s vessels use ship-to-ship transfers with U.S.-sanctioned vessels affiliated with Iran’s shadow fleet. They also hide their involvement with Iran via nighttime transfers, spoofing of the Automated Identification System and gaps in AIS location reporting, Treasury said. The AIS system identifies ships and broadcasts navigational data to other vessels to give situational awareness in the seas and prevent collisions.

The new sanctions mean all property and interests in property of the companies involved that are in the United States or in the possession or control of Americans are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.