November 18, 2016
The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) has announced it is renting out one-sixth of its tankers to foreign firms.
NITC Director Ali-Akbar Safaei also said the company may rent out even more of his tankers.
But he didn’t say to whom it was leasing its tankers or—more importantly—why.
NITC owns 69 tankers with a capacity of 15.5 million tons—making it the world’s largest oil shipping company—and now has 12 leased to foreign firms.
Safaei said NITC began operations in 1955 with a solitary 35,000-ton tanker. It was created after the oil nationalization crisis when Britain was able to stop foreign tankers from visiting Iran and Iran could not ship out its own oil.
But tanker ownership was not a big help during the 2012-15 sanctions crisis as Iranian ships were denied insurance and could not enter foreign ports.