Iran's oil diplomacy was in full swing last week, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting several Latin American countries, led by his talks with Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez.
Underlining the ongoing oil links between two of the founder members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported that Iran will deliver an oil tanker to Venezuela later this year.
Reza Abdolmajid, in charge of the 113,000-ton Aframax tankers project at Iran Marine Industrial Co. (Sadra), said his firm is making four of the tankers for Venezuela, with the first coming in September.
Word of the four-tanker deal, valued at €520 million, coincided with the arrival of Ahmadinejad in Venezuela, followed by a swing through Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador.
Not intimidated
Ahmadinejad's visit allowed Iran to show that it still has friends despite sanctions, especially friends in the Western Hemisphere. In a word, Iran could show that it was not being intimidated by the US.
In that, Ahmadinejad enjoyed the robust support of Chavez, who delights in nothing more than tweaking the nose of Uncle Sam or nationalizing the investments of US corporations in his country.
"What the empire does is make you laugh in its desperation to do something they will not be able to do: Dominate the world," Chavez said. "The people of Latin America will never again kneel, dominated by the imperial Yankee."
Before departing Tehran, Ahmadinejad took that up a notch, saying that strong ties with Latin America were vital toward "battling the hegemonic systems" of the US and Europe.
"We will discuss the hegemonic system's efforts to interfere in countries and establish its military presence there," he said of plans by the US and European Union to tighten sanctions and hold naval exercises in the Gulf of Hormuz.
Budding relationship
Washington has been watching the budding relationship between Caracas and Tehran closely, taking what President Barack Obama said were "a number of significant and effective steps to indicate our concern to the Venezuelan government."
Obama told Venezuela's El Universal daily that those included the imposition of sanctions last year against the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA after it shipped reformate, a gasoline blending component, to Iran.
Meanwhile, as a sign of Iran's growing impatience with the US and EU, National Iranian Oil Co. officials strongly dismissed a statement that their firm owes $2 billion in oil shipments to Eni SPA.
In December, Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said tighter sanctions on Iran could cost the Italian firm as much as $2 billion in crude oil owed to it by NIOC (OGJ, Dec. 19, 2011, p. 17).
Don't we call that a Parthian shot?
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