Tehran’s policy in circumventing sanctions and finding new destinations

According to an exclusive Energy Press report, according to shipping sources and data, Iran has sent crude oil shipments to new destinations such as Bangladesh and Oman, the latest sign of efforts to circumvent sanctions and maintain production close to its highest level in five years.
According to informed sources, these shipments were exported in smaller formats than usual, which have turned into a mechanism to increase Iran’s oil exports. Oil sales are the main source of Iran’s income, and the country is looking for ways to circumvent the US sanctions on its crude oil exports, which former US President Donald Trump reimposed in 2018 by violating the JCPOA.
New shipments and smart policies
According to Reuters, Iran, which is exempt from production quotas set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is trying to maximize production and exports. Meanwhile, Javad Oji, the former oil minister, said in July that Iran sells crude oil to 17 countries, including European countries.
According to informed sources, in one of the new trades, the tanker “Golden Eagle” headed for the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh earlier this year after receiving oil from another vessel that had loaded it from an island outside Iran. In April, Golden Eagle reportedly offloaded portions of the cargo to smaller tankers during a ship-to-ship transfer operation around Chittagong. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, this shipment to Bangladesh was separately confirmed by another oil export tracking source.
On the other hand, an official of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, which runs the country’s main refinery, said it had not bought the shipment and it was difficult to determine who the buyer was. According to “Yari Withersan”, an energy analyst, by spreading its big cargoes in the form of smaller assignments, Tehran has been able to go beyond the tracking of US sanctions and create new routes as well as more specific destinations for its exports. He added: “This policy has made it not only more difficult to intercept sanctions, but it can also increase the level of Iranian oil exports.”
New oil destinations
According to OPEC statistics, after registering one of the largest increases in OPEC production in 2023 despite the presence of US sanctions, Tehran’s oil production reached 3.2 million barrels per day this year, which is the highest level since 2018. In the meantime, according to reports, Syria and Oman have a special place.
According to PetroLogistics, a Geneva-based firm that tracks tanker shipments, Iran’s crude oil exports are at their highest level this year, with March to May the strongest three-month period since mid-2018. Virginie Bahnik, one of the analysts of Petro Logistics Company, said in this regard: “But it seems that the volume of this export is currently increasing.”
Shipping sources said at least eight oil cargoes — mostly from Iran — were bound for Syria in recent months, some of which had already been unloaded. According to export sources, Iranian oil deliveries to Syria in 2024 averaged 57,190 bpd compared to a peak of 147,000 bpd in 2022.
Also, according to shipping sources, a separate tanker carried a cargo believed to be Iranian crude oil to Oman’s Sohar port after loading the cargo via a ship-to-ship with another ship that had received the cargo from an island off Iran earlier this year. delivered The ship tracking source also confirmed the arrival of this cargo in Sohar.
At the same time, Tehran’s exports to China, which does not recognize the US sanctions, have flowed to this port and helped to maintain the country’s oil imports at near-record levels. Oil tanker trackers and brokers say that traders change the origin of Iranian oil destined for China and replace it with other places such as Malaysia, Oman or the United Arab Emirates.
According to experts, the aforementioned policies will be a suitable tool to bypass sanctions and increase the volume of exports for Iran and can have a high impact.