In Blow to U.S.
First Iranian Condensate Cargo Reaches Venezuela
TEHRAN (Press TV) - The first Iranian condensate cargo for Venezuela has been unloaded at the South American country’s port of Puerto Jose, a report says.
The ship on Saturday started discharging about 2 million barrels of South Pars condensate which the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA is thought to blend with Venezuela’s tar-like crude in order to prop up production in the Orinoco oil belt, the financial news provider said.
Iran has already shipped several cargoes of gasoline to Venezuela, but this is the first condensate trade between the two countries.
Most importantly, the shipment is apparently the first to reach Venezuela since Iran supplied 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and diesel fuel to the country in May and June despite U.S. threats to stop them.
Last month, the U.S. government went on a full-throttle propaganda campaign, claiming that it had seized 1.116 million barrels of Iranian fuel because it was bound for Venezuela.
Iran, however, put down its foot to assert that neither the ships were Iranian nor their owners or their cargo had any connection to the Islamic Republic.
When the New York Times first reported the seizure of the four cargoes in August, the newspaper headlined it as a "diplomatic doubleheader” which blocked Iran and Venezuela from evading American economic sanctions.
Iranian officials brushed aside the claim, with Iran’s Ambassador to Venezuela Hojjat Soltani saying the report was an "act of psychological warfare perpetrated by the U.S. propaganda machine” trying to compensate for the Trump administration’s "humiliation and defeat by Iran using false propaganda.”
"The United States is seeking to contrive a victory for itself. Neither did the ships nor the cargo belong to Iran,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh told reporters in Tehran.
A legal challenge put up by the owners of the cargoes in the US last week appeared to confirm Iran’s contention.
The ship on Saturday started discharging about 2 million barrels of South Pars condensate which the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA is thought to blend with Venezuela’s tar-like crude in order to prop up production in the Orinoco oil belt, the financial news provider said.
Iran has already shipped several cargoes of gasoline to Venezuela, but this is the first condensate trade between the two countries.
Most importantly, the shipment is apparently the first to reach Venezuela since Iran supplied 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and diesel fuel to the country in May and June despite U.S. threats to stop them.
Last month, the U.S. government went on a full-throttle propaganda campaign, claiming that it had seized 1.116 million barrels of Iranian fuel because it was bound for Venezuela.
Iran, however, put down its foot to assert that neither the ships were Iranian nor their owners or their cargo had any connection to the Islamic Republic.
When the New York Times first reported the seizure of the four cargoes in August, the newspaper headlined it as a "diplomatic doubleheader” which blocked Iran and Venezuela from evading American economic sanctions.
Iranian officials brushed aside the claim, with Iran’s Ambassador to Venezuela Hojjat Soltani saying the report was an "act of psychological warfare perpetrated by the U.S. propaganda machine” trying to compensate for the Trump administration’s "humiliation and defeat by Iran using false propaganda.”
"The United States is seeking to contrive a victory for itself. Neither did the ships nor the cargo belong to Iran,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh told reporters in Tehran.
A legal challenge put up by the owners of the cargoes in the US last week appeared to confirm Iran’s contention.