The daily El Nacional reported March 2 that Venezuela exports very little other than oil products to Iran, averaging a mere $3.4 million a year since President Ahmadi-nejad took office in 2005.
But El Nacional said that what caught its attention was that 73 percent of Venezuela’s non-oil exports to Iran in 2010 came under tariff code 3602009000, which is for “Other prepared explosives.”
El Nacional asked why Venezuela was exporting any explosives to Iran when UN sanctions imposed in 2007 forbid Iran from importing any weapons or explosives.
As for oil sales to Iran, El Nacional said Venezuela sold an average of 20,000 barrels a day of gasoline to Iran from October 2009 through September 2010.
But the daily quoted an unnamed official as saying Iran did not pay Venezuela directly for the gasoline. Instead, Iran deposited the payments in an account in Tehran that Venezuela could draw on to pay for imports from Iran, a rather unusual arrangement.
El Nacional said the year’s worth of sales came to $800 million, according to an official spokesperson. If so, that would mean Venezuela was charging Iran $2.60 a gallon, the retail rate rather than the wholesale price.