UANI

"International trading house Vitol will resume Caspian oil swaps with Iran after a year-long suspension of operations, industry and trade sources said on Thursday. 'Vitol is resuming Iranian swaps. I think there there's really good money in it,' a Mediterranean trader told Reuters. Vitol has already signed a swap agreement with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) but the swap operations, under which Vitol supplies Iran with Caspian oil in exchange for Iranian crude volumes for loading on the Persian Gulf, will most likely start up again toward the end of the year, another source close to the deal said."(Reuters, "Vitol to resume Caspian oil swaps with Iran," 6/23/2011)

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"Open sources reported that Vitol sold gasoline to Iran in 2009 and 2010, but subsequently stopped in 2010." (U.S. Government Accountability Office, Report: "Firms Reported in Open Sources to Have Sold Iran Refined Petroleum Products between January 1, 2009 and June," September 3, 2010)

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"Due to limited refining capabilities, Iran imports approximately 40% of its domestic gasoline consumption. Iran is the second-largest importer of gasoline in the world. That gasoline is supplied primarily by five companies: the Swiss-Dutch energy trading giants Vitol and Trafigura, the Indian multinational Reliance Industries, the Swiss trader Glencore and the French energy firm Total." (The Wall Street Journal, "Hitting Tehran Where It Hurts," 7/13/09)

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"Because of a lack of domestic refining capacity, oil-rich Iran is dependent on gasoline imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption. Iran gets most of its gasoline imports from the Swiss firm Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch firm Trafigura, France's Total, the Swiss firm Glencore and British Petroleum, as well as the Indian firm Reliance." (Khaleej Times, "US house approves Iran energy sector sanctions," 12/16/09)

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"State Sen. Ted Deutch has a vision where Florida puts a stop to Iran's nuclear ambitions. His weapon: public opinion. His ammunition: a $125-million fuel depot being built in Port Canaveral by one of the worlds largest oil traders. Deutch has asked Gov. Charlie Crist to broker a meeting with executives from Vitol, the Swiss company that supplies one quarter of Irans fuel and is building the largest private investment in Port Canaverals history. Deutch hopes to leverage public opinion to persuade Vitol to stop selling gasoline to Iran. (St. Petersburg Times, "Business with Iran May Mean None in Florida," 12/07/08)

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"In recent months, Iran has, according to the respected trade publication International Oil Daily and other sources including the U.S. government, purchased nearly all of this gasoline from just five companies, four of them European: the Swiss firm Vitol; the Swiss/Dutch firm Trafigura; the French firm Total; British Petroleum; and one Indian company, Reliance Industries." (The Wall Street Journal, "How To Put The Squeeze On Iran," 11/13/08)

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"Swiss trading giant Vitol Group has continued dealing in Iranian oil products even after buying millions of barrels of crude oil from U.S. strategic reserves last year, but some U.S. lawmakers aim to prevent the company from having it both ways in the future. Vitol, the world's largest independent oil trader, received fuel from Iran earlier this month, an Iranian document obtained by Dow Jones Newswires shows. The Vitol shipment doesn't violate current U.S. or European Union sanctions on Iran, which are designed to eventually choke off activities with the Islamic Republic from banking to shipping oil. Yet a bill with some bipartisan support from key U.S. senators would bar companies which engage in trading activity with Iran from buying oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if it's passed into law... Vitol is a rare example of a large company in the western European oil industry that hasn't announced a voluntary end to trades with Iran, despite having strong U.S. ties. It has a large oil trading operation in the U.S. and has announced plans to build a crude oil terminal and loading facilities in Midland, Texas."  (Wall Street Journal.  "US Bill Could Create Clash Between Vitol's Iran And US Business," 3/23/12)