Parliament Probes Iran's Missing Oil Export Income: MP

An Iranian lawmaker says parliament is investigating why some US$6.7 billion in revenues from the country’s oil exports have not been repatriated. Hosseinali Hajideligani said on Saturday that trusts and currency exchange firms designated by Iran’s Oil Ministry to handle oil export proceeds had failed to return roughly US$6.7 billion to the country.

Hajideligani, the deputy head of parliament’s Article 90 Committee, said Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has been asked to provide explanations regarding the performance of contractors tasked with selling Iranian oil and returning its revenues.

“The failure to repatriate oil revenues in hard currency is extremely sensitive under the country’s current conditions, and parliament is pursuing the matter seriously and decisively,” he told the ILNA news agency. The lawmaker said Paknejad has formed a special committee within the Oil Ministry to investigate the issue, but insisted that parliament would move to impeach the minister if he fails to provide satisfactory explanations. “We must determine the extent of the Oil Ministry’s responsibility in the failure to return oil revenues … and we will make a decision regarding the oil minister,” he said.

However, in remarks published on Saturday, Paknejad said the Oil Ministry’s mandate is limited to the trade and marketing of oil, placing responsibility for the repatriation of export proceeds on the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). “The part related to the depositing of funds, including whether, when, and how much money has been credited to accounts at banks approved by the CBI, is monitored by the central bank itself,” Paknejad told state television.

The minister added that the Oil Ministry would cease cooperation with any trader flagged by the CBI for failing or being unable to return oil export revenues. Since coming under US sanctions in 2018, Iran has relied on brokers and intermediary companies to sell its oil to international buyers. This arrangement has allowed Iran to bypass sanctions and export up to around 2 million barrels per day of oil in recent years, largely to private buyers in China.

Recent reports suggest that a new group of intermediary firms contracted by the Oil Ministry to market oil has failed to repatriate export proceeds. An ILNA report published on December 2 said the companies allegedly submitted falsified documents to the CBI, claiming that oil cargoes had been sold and revenues returned. The report added that Iran seized a Marshall Islands–flagged tanker, Talara, on December 15 while it was en route from the United Arab Emirates to Hong Kong, in an effort to recover part of the lost assets. - Press TV