Azerbaijan, Baku, July 5 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Countries and insurance companies that help Iran with its oil exports will have big problems in the future, EU economic advisor Mehrdad Emadi told Trend.
Not long ago NITC, an oil-tanker company owned by Iranian pension funds, renamed at least 10 of its vessels and switched them to a Tanzanian flag, according to the Equasis shipping database maintained by the European Commission.
"Up until now the tankers did not undergo any check-ups in the ports," Emadi said. "However a week ago, the registration checks on every cargo ship have started again."
Advisor explained that every registered cargo ship has a number assigned to it, matching the flag that the tanker goes by.
He admitted that sometimes it takes too much time to to check every tanker whether the registration number and country flag match up.
"Iran is using this trick to up the fact that its actually transporting its own oil under other countries' flags," Emadi noted. "In this context, I think this kind of strategy would only work short term, while long term this is to be considered a failure".
Advisor noted that putting other coutries flags on these tankers is illegal.
Tanzania said on Thursday it was investigating whether it had reflagged any oil tankers from Iran and that it would strip the vessels of the Tanzanian flag if that proved to be the case, Reuters reported.
Howard Berman, the ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has accused Tanzania of reflagging at least six and possibly as many at 10 tankers owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, saying Tanzania could face U.S. sanctions for the practice.
Iran is subject to U.S., European Union and United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and EU say is designed to produce atomic weapons and the government in Tehran says is for civilian purposes.
The nation is the second-biggest producer in OPEC after Saudia Arabia, and a full EU ban on its oil shipments began July 1.