From the wires /// "Iran have chartered nearly 10% of the world tanker fleet for floating storage of crude oil. At the moment 30 VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier) and ULCCs (Ultra Large Crude Carrier) are anchoring outside the island Khark in the Persian Gulf. Last week the country reiterated its intentions to continue the nuclear programme but would not disclose the reason for chartering tankers for crude oil storage. The country is either preparing for war or just speculating on the oil price.
NOTE: Ahead of the first Gulf War, Iraq chartered crude oil tankers for floating storage."
Read 62 and put on your war face.
And we saw how well all of that worked out for them.
If true, I like the sound of this from the Gulf Daily News (the voice of Bahrain):
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=150362&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=29125
Iran to use reserve dollars to skirt fuel crisis
TEHRAN: Iran's government will try to avoid rationing gasoline from September 23 by seeking to dip into dollar reserves to pay for fuel imports, a member of parliament said yesterday.
Parliament has cut the budget for gasoline imports in the year to March 2007, prompting the oil minister to say Tehran would have to stop buying in gasoline shipments and start petrol rationing on September 23.
Iran's final decision on how to cope with the budget cut is being keenly awaited by European and Asian gasoline traders who send a gasoline tanker to Iranian quaysides every two days.
Kamal Daneshyar, head of parliament's energy commission, said the government would submit a bill to parliament seeking $4 billion to $4.5bn to pay for extra imports as a way of sidestepping rationing that could spark social discontent.
"A bill to withdraw a sum of $4bn to $4.5bn from the Oil Stabilisation Fund will be submitted to parliament for importing gasoline and diesel in the coming days," he said. Iran's dollar earnings above budgeted levels go into the Oil Stabilisation Fund which, strictly speaking, is only supposed to be tapped if oil prices become perilously low.
Daneshyar could give no indication of how such a bill would be received by lawmakers.
The world's fourth biggest crude exporter has to import about 40 per cent of the 70m litres of gasoline it burns each day owing to a lack of refinery capacity.
Commentators say lavish subsidies that keep petrol at nine cents per litre erode Iran's industrial competiveness and ensure the Islamic Republic effectively subsidises its neighbours through contraband fuel trading.
Tehran is dangerously polluted and its roads are normally choked by heavy traffic.
Gas 9 cents a litre???
Interesting. This island Khark. Is it near the Strait of Hormuz?
, Cage Rattler wrote:
From the wires /// "Iran have chartered nearly 10% of the world tanker fleet for floating storage of crude
oil. At the moment 30 VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier) and ULCCs (Ultra Large Crude Carrier) are
anchoring outside the island Khark in the Persian Gulf. Last week the country reiterated its intentions to
continue the nuclear programme but would not disclose the reason for chartering tankers for crude oil
storage. The country is either preparing for war or just speculating on the oil price.
NOTE: Ahead of the first Gulf War, Iraq chartered crude oil tankers for floating storage."
^^^UNCONFIRMED^^^
Link requested, none provided.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst, but insist on three unconnected sources before acting on any information.