Iran’s only customers for crude sales in recent months have been China and Syria, right? Not if the latest official EU crude import data is to believed. This shows that the Netherlands imported Iranian crude for six of the first eight months in 2019, most recently 209,000 tons (49,000 b/d) in July and 105,000 tons in August.
MEES has never had past cause to question Eurostat data – figures on EU countries’ Iran imports for 2018 tally exactly with those from national sources. But the latest data is worthy of skepticism given that the likes of Kpler and Tanker Trackers have been eagle-eyed in tracking Iranian shipments, and neither has seemingly flagged up any heading to northwest Europe. (CONTINUED - 244 WORDS)
