Iran Sanctions Tightening

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-1 ... crude.html

"Sanctions on Iran are tightening after Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., Frontline Ltd. and owners controlling more than 100 supertankers said they would stop loading cargoes from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest producer.

OSG, based in New York, said Feb. 10 that the pool of 45 supertankers from seven owners in which its carriers trade will no longer go to Iran. Four OSG-owned ships, managed by Tankers International LLC, called at the country’s biggest crude-export terminal in the past year, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Nova Tankers A/S and Frontline, with a combined 93 vessels, said Feb. 9 and 11 they wouldn’t ship Iranian crude. ".....................

How will Iran react to this? Deny all Persian Gulf oil to the world?

Here's the problem - if the big reputible shipping companies will not ship crude --- guess who does ship it?

Now - think about the aquatic reources of the Persian Gulf, The Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Oman.

You're going to get dingy and rusty old tankers hauling crude in vulnerable aquatic areas.
(a bad idea).

I think the political sanctions will lead up to an environmental disaster. (the cost of the disaster will be significant).

I would not be surprised to see Iran simply dump oil into the Gulf --- just to make a point.

Here is a great interview of Ali Soufan, someone that understands all of the complexities in the Arab world. We tend to think of Iran as one faction of people called Iranians. But just as it is in most countries, there are factions whole loyalties cross country boundaries and make things very complicated. If you listen to the interview, you'll then understand why China vetoed the UN sanction vote and what their connection is to the Turks. We learned this the hard way in Iraq. I hope we don't do something stupid in Iran.

Ali H. Soufan is a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who investigated a number of high-profile international terrorism cases, including the East Africa embassy bombings, the attack on the USS Cole and the events surrounding 9/11. A leading counterterrorism and national security expert, Soufan was born in Lebanon and received degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University. He is the CEO of the Soufan Group, an international strategic consulting firm that trains law enforcement, intelligence and security forces; he also serves as executive director of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies and is a visiting senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soufan is the author of "The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda" (2011).

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-f ... ali-soufan

bailey bud wrote: You're going to get dingy and rusty old tankers hauling crude in vulnerable aquatic areas.
(a bad idea).

Are there enough old rusty tankers in the world to handle the volume and the facilities to fill them all.

This could be entirely wrong but I had the impression that a lot of them get sold for scrap.

Old inefficient rusty tankers that are easier for pirates to seize. Wonderful.

It does sound like the sanctions have put the Iranian economy into a tailspin, would love for the rulers to back down, or even better, have a Persian Spring overwhelm them.

Unfortunately, a lot of those old tankers are bunkering fuel in the gulf of Oman (Fujairah).

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of Iranian oil bunkered there, as well.

FredHayek wrote: It does sound like the sanctions have put the Iranian economy into a tailspin, would love for the rulers to back down, or even better, have a Persian Spring overwhelm them.

We can't let that happen because we wouldn't know who the leaders of such an uprising really are. They could be radical Muslims and we could end up with another.... Iran. lol

It does look like Iran is amping up state sponsored attacks around the world this week.