RIL not to sell refined petrol to Iran

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has informed the United States that it has stopped selling refined petroleum products to Iran, the US State Department said on Thursday.

In addition to RIL, several other petrochemical companies from other countries have also assured the US government that they are not selling refined fuel products to Iran.

As part of efforts to increase pressure on the government of Iran to discontinue its alleged nuclear weapons programme, the US has been aggressively urging foreign governments and companies to avoid commercial activity in Iran's energy sector, the State Department said after releasing a list of such companies.

"The results of the state department's efforts are clear: companies are recognising the increased risks of doing business in Iran and terminating their operations there or committing not to engage in any new activities in Iran," the State Department said a day after the Obama Administration slapped another set of sanctions on certain Iranian individuals accused of human rights violations.

French oil group Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group and India's Reliance informed the State Department that they have stopped refined product sales to Iran earlier this year, it said.

In addition, Turkish refiner Tupras told the State Department in August that it had cancelled contracts to supply gasoline to Iran.

Swiss energy traders Vitol, Glencore, and Trafigura all gave a public commitment in March, 2010, that they will not supply refined petroleum products to Iran, while Russian

LUKOIL reconfirmed this commitment to US officials on September 2 after press reports to the contrary, the statement said. BP and Shell have told the State Department they are no longer supplying jet fuel to Iran Air, it said.

In upstream projects, Shell, Total, ENI and Statoil have all ended or are in the process of terminating their activities in Iran and have all committed not to engage in any new activities there, the State Department said.

Shell and Repsol have abandoned negotiations over development of phases 13 and 14 of the South Pars gas field and have committed to us not to engage in any further discussions with Iran, it added.

What is more, South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction announced on July 1 that it had cancelled a $1.2 billion gas processing project in Iran, while Lloyds of London had announced on July 9 that it will not insure or reinsure petroleum shipments going into Iran.

The State Department noted that key shipping associations have created clauses in contracts that enable ship-owners to refuse to deliver refined petroleum cargoes to Iran. Recently, Hong Kong shipping company NYK Line Ltd announced that it had decided to withdraw from trade with Iran, the State Department said.