Oil Aboard Iranian Tanker Sold to Unknown Buyer

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Iran has sold the oil carried by the tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, IRIB news agency said citing an Iranian government spokesperson.

Namely, the spokesman, Ali Rabiei, said that the owner and purchaser of the oil will decide the destination of the cargo.

Rabiei did not identify the buyer of the oil carried by the Adrian Darya 1 tanker, that was previously detained for six weeks in Gibraltar on suspicion that it was in breach of European Union sanctions.

The tanker had previously been sailing to Kalamata, Greece, however, the country said it would not offer any facilities to the vessel, which then changed its destination to Turkey. While current Adrian Darya 1 data do not specify a destination, AIS data provided by MarineTraffic shows that the vessel is underway south of mainland Greece, off the island of Crete.

The tanker was transporting 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil to Baniyas Oil Refinery in Syria when it was seized by the Gibraltar law enforcement agencies, with the support of the Royal Marines, on July 4.

On August 13, Gibraltar received written assurance from the Republic of Iran that, if released, the destination of Grace 1 would not be an entity that is subject to EU sanctions.

After Gibraltar released the tanker on August 15, the United States said it would take every action it could in order to prevent the vessel from delivering oil to Syria in contravention of U.S. sanctions.