House Committee Passes Iran Sanctions Bill

A key US Congressional committee has voted overwhelmingly to pass a wide-ranging bill that would toughen U.S. sanctions on Iran and on companies that invest in the country.

Although the bill, if passed into law, would sanction any investment in Iran, it particularly targets oil and banking. It requires the president’s administration to enforce the Iran Sanctions Act, ending the State Department’s ability to waive its enforcement. Under the Iran Sanctions Act, foreign companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector can be penalized by the U.S.

An approved amendment to the bill also allows the federal government to seize the assets of corporate officers of companies investing in Iran.

“Corporate barons running giant oil companies – who have cravenly turned a blind eye to Iran’s development of nuclear weapons – have come to assume that the Iran Sanctions Act will never be implemented,” Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif, said. “This charade now comes to a long overdue end this morning.”

Several companies with multi-billion dollar operations in the U.S., or that are listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Royal Dutch Shell, Norsk Hydro, Total and China’s National Offshore Oil Corp are in negotiations for major oil and gas deals with Iran and could be hit by the bill if passed.

Ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the bill would also affect petroleum products and liquefied natural gas exports from Iran. Iran is in the process of contracting some of the biggest LNG projects in the world.

Meanwhile Iranian motorists have set light to petrol stations across Tehran after the Government imposed fuel rationing with just three hours’ notice. Although Iran is one of the world’s biggest producers of crude oil but depends heavily on imported petrol because it lacks refining capacity.But the daily quota of just over three litres is a paltry amount in a city as huge as Tehran which has poor public transport. Rationing is to continue for four months and may be extended, the Government said.

Sanctions and rationing…. There will be trouble ahead.