Iran seized two foreign tankers

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized and confiscated two foreign tankers in The Persian Gulf. The Iranian side stated that the vessels were transporting smuggled petroleum products.

"During the operation on Monday, the IRGC Navy seized two tankers called Start 1 and Vintage, which were carrying more than three million liters of smuggled diesel fuel," PressTV reports.

According to him, 25 crew members of two tankers were arrested, and the vessels were sent to Bushehr. Who owned the tankers is not reported.

Thanks to government subsidies, oil products in Iran are among the cheapest in the world. Therefore, fuel smuggling to neighboring countries has become an extremely profitable business, the newspaper reports. Thus, the price of diesel fuel in Iran is only 7 cents by quota, and for farmers and truck drivers — 14 cents.

Tehran estimates that about 25-30 million liters of oil products — diesel fuel and gas oil - are illegally exported from the country every day.