GAO: BP may have violated U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran

BP is one of 16 international companies that may have violated U.S. sanctions against selling gas to Iran, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

Under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act signed by President Obama in July 2010, companies or individuals that sell refined petroleum products to Iran in excess of $1 million during a year are subject to three or more out of a possible nine sanctions.

Investigators at the GAO claim that BP sold the petroleum between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, based on open sources, which includes trade publications and company statements. Yet BP notified GAO that it stopped selling gasoline to Iran in October 2008 and maintains that information that reported “BP sold gasoline to Iran in 2009 or 2010 was inaccurate,” according to the report.

The GAO stands by its research, emphasizing that “we required multiple corroborating sources of information for every entry in our tables of firms reported to have sold refined petroleum products to Iran at any time during the period between January 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010.”

BP stopped selling gas to Iran in the second half of 2009, reported Time magazine reported. But it remains one of the most active Western oil companies engaged in energy projects in Iran — through a joint venture with Swiss-based NaftIran…

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/bp-may-have-sold-violated_n_749609.html