US Treasury imposes sanctions on six companies for dealing in Iran oil exports

The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on six companies for their alleged support to Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd., an entity earlier zeroed on by the department for doing business with Iran. The six companies designated by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are based in Iran, UAE, and China. 

"The Iranian regime uses revenue from petrochemical sales to continue its financing of terrorism and destabilizing foreign agenda. The Trump administration remains committed to targeting those contributing to Iran’s attempts to evade U.S. sanctions by facilitating the illicit sale of Iranian petroleum products around the world," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement on September 3. 

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As per the US department, these companies were doing business with Triliance, a Hong Kong-based broker that was selling petrochemicals from Iran. Triliance, along with three other petrochemical and petroleum companies, was sanctioned by the United States in January this year for transferring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of exports from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the Islamic Republic's state-run oil company.

The United States accuses Triliance of using other companies to hide their involvement in petrochemical sales. Washington claims that Triliance uses these companies to broker the sales of petroleum products by settling fees with their accounts.

State Department sanctions

In addition to this, the United States has also imposed sanctions on five other companies for knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran. The sanctions of these entities were imposed by the US Department of State, which also sanctioned three individuals who are principal executive officers of the sanctioned entities.  

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