US wants to seize 2M barrels of Iranian oil

The US Department of Justice has filed a case in a district court to seize two million barrels of oil that it claims came from Iran, Report informs, referring to Bloomberg.

The department seeks to seize the cargo on the Greek-owned Achilleas tanker. The US alleges that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force covertly shipped the oil abroad.

They ‘attempted to disguise the origin of the oil using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means, and provided a fraudulent bill of lading to deceive the owners of the Achilleas,’ the department said.

Iranian oil production had almost halved since mid-2018 when Trump pulled out of a nuclear accord with Iran and tightened sanctions. Tehran has increased energy exports in recent months, according to several firms that monitor its output, in what may be an attempt to test Biden’s resolve.