(Repeats story issued on Wednesday to add link to graphic)
By Luke Pachymuthu and Randy Fabi
SINGAPORE Oct 3 (Reuters) – Danish oil and shipping group
A.P. Moller Maersk says it will talk to Vitol to
determine whether one of its tankers was used by the trading
house to ship Iranian fuel oil.
The Maersk Producer, a tanker chartered by Vitol from
Maersk, received a fuel oil cargo of Iranian origin on Sept. 8,
according to a document seen by Reuters. The cargo was
transferred aboard the Danish tanker from Vitol’s floating
storage off Malaysia, the document shows, and shipped to storage
in Singapore.
Vitol admitted last week its Bahrain office had bought the
Iranian fuel oil but said it had now ordered a stop to all trade
with Iran, which is under European and U.S. oil and financial
sanctions. Based in Switzerland and trading the oil from
Bahrain, Vitol did not contravene sanctions.
Maersk said it was surprised to hear that its ship had been
hired to transport Iranian oil.
“Not at any point did we know that the vessel would be used
to transport oil under embargo and we will bring this up for
discussion with Vitol at the highest level,” said Per Juul,
managing director of the agent for Maersk, in an e-mail response
to questions.
“If it is confirmed that it was Iranian oil the consequences
will have to be discussed with Vitol…we have contacted our
insurance company about this issue.”
A spokesman for Vitol said the company would “cooperate
fully” in any talks with Maersk.
The Maersk Producer discharged the cargo into a storage
terminal in Singapore leased by Vitol from Tuas Power between
Sept. 10 and Sept. 12, Reuters shipping data shows.
Tuas Power, which is a fully owned subsidiary of the New
York listed Huaneng Power International, said that
it had been reassured by Vitol that the cargo discharged by the
Maersk Producer was not of Iranian origin.
“Our checks showed no indication that the cargo of fuel oil
in question was of Iranian origin,” Tuas Power’s spokeswoman
Talia Tan said, responding to an email seeking comments.
Checks were based on a review of “declaration documents”, a
source at the company told Reuters. Declaration documents for
oil held in floating storage commonly refer to the storage
vessel as the origin, particularly when fuel of more than one
origin is blended in storage.
The Iranian fuel oil has still to be sold to its final
destination.
(editing Richard Mably, Manash Goswami)