WANA (July 20) – Early Friday morning, on July 19th, two oil tankers collided off the coast of Singapore, making headlines across major global news outlets. Reports from agencies such as Reuters and Bloomberg claimed that one of the tankers, a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), was carrying two million barrels of Iranian crude oil bound for China.

 

However, the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum swiftly denied these allegations in an official statement. The ministry clarified that neither of the damaged tankers was associated with Iran, and none of the crude oil on board either vessel was Iranian.

 

According to documented reports, the VLCC involved in the incident, named “Series 1,” flies the flag of São Tomé and Príncipe, a small island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa. The other tanker involved in the collision was a Singaporean.

 

The Iranian ministry questioned the motives behind the Western media’s claims, particularly in light of Iran’s ability to increase its oil production and exports despite ongoing U.S. sanctions. The ministry suggested that attributing the VLCC’s cargo to Iran might be driven by ulterior motives.