Iran seizes ship carrying smuggled fuel -- media

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

TEHRAN, Aug 29 (Reuters) Iranian police seized a foreign-registered ship carrying 500,000 litres of smuggled fuel in the Gulf today and detained 18 people on board, Iranian media said.

The ship, carrying gas oil, was bound for a neighbouring Gulf Arab state, the Mehr News Agency said, without identifying the country.

Iran has some of the cheapest fuel in the world, which industry analysts say encourages smuggling to other countries where prices are higher. Gas oil can be used as fuel for trucks and ships, as well as for heating.

''This morning a big vessel in the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran ... was identified and during inspections this this large consignment of gas oil was discovered,'' regional police chief Mansour Dashti told Mehr.

Police and coast guards were escorting the ship to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, he said. The ISNA news agency said 18 foreign nationals were detained.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, but lacks refining capacity and must import large amounts of fuel which it then sells at heavily-subsidised prices.

Iran introduced gasoline rationing in June to try to rein in consumption and imports at a time of rising international tension over its disputed nuclear programme. Gas oil is not rationed.

REUTERS SY RAI2027

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