KUALA LUMPUR – A Malaysian company and two Singapore-based firms have been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for allegedly being involved in the production, sale, and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum to buyers in Asia.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) is targeting six Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers or their subsidiaries, and three firms in Malaysia and Singapore that were involved in facilitating the sale and shipment of petroleum and petrochemicals on behalf of Triliance Petrochemical Co Ltd.
The three Southeast Asian firms are Malaysia-based Sense Shipping and Trading Sdn Bhd and Singapore’s Asia Fuel Pte Ltd and Unicious Energy Pte Ltd.
According to a statement by the Treasury, Sense Shipping is a Kuala Lumpur front company for Triliance that has facilitated shipment of tens of thousands of metric tonnes of petrochemicals to foreign customers.
Sense Shipping previously operated under the name Eastchem Shipping Sdn Bhd.
The Treasury added that Asia Fuel has facilitated the shipment of petroleum products worth millions of dollars to customers in East Asia and arranged to pay storage fees on behalf of Triliance to house petroleum products in a Malaysia-based floating storage vessel.
Meanwhile, Unicious Energy was accused of serving an important role in Triliance’s network, coordinating millions of dollars in petroleum-related payments for other companies within the network and aiding Triliance in its sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of petroleum products.
Triliance Petrochemical was hit with sanctions by Washington in 2020.
“Iran increasingly turning to buyers in East Asia to sell its petrochemical and petroleum products is in violation of US sanctions,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.
Other Iranian firms targeted for sanctions are petrochemical producer Amir Kabir Petrochemical Co (AKPC), its subsidiary Simorgh Petrochemical Co as well as four subsidiaries – Laleh Petrochemical Company, Marun Tadbir Tina Company, Marun Sepehr Ofogh Company, and Marun Supplemental Industries Company – linked to the previously sanctioned Marun Petrochemical Co.
Treasury said Triliance had bought millions of dollars worth of low-density polyethene produced by AKPC for shipment to buyers in China.
As a result of the sanction, all property and interests in property of these targets that are in the US or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to Ofac. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.
This comes after Ofac’s designation on November 17 of 13 companies in the UAE and Hong Kong for facilitating the sale of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products to buyers in East Asia on behalf of Triliance and sanctioned Iranian petrochemical broker Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co (PGPICC), as well as on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and its marketing arm, Naftiran Intertrade Company Ltd (Nico).
It was previously reported that negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, between Iran and world powers have stalled for months for multiple reasons, including the protests in the country.
The agreement offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could not acquire or build a nuclear weapon – an objective it has always denied pursuing.
But in 2018 then US president Donald Trump declared a unilateral withdrawal from the accord and reimposed painful sanctions regime, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments. – The Vibes, February 10, 2023
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