Iran denies attacking Romanian oil rig
Iran denies claim its military attacked a Romanian oil rig in Iranian waters in what appears to be an out-of-control commercial dispute. By Anca Paduraru in Bucharest for ISN Security Watch (25/08/06)Tehran has emphatically denied allegations by a Romanian oil company operating a drilling rig in Iranian waters that its military attacked the rig on Tuesday. It is now one side's word against the other's, with no independent means of verifying the claim by the Romanian oil company, Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP). Viorel Petcu, chief operator of the rig, said the installation and the crew came under pistol and machine-gun fire at 9.45am local time on Tuesday from an Iranian chopper and military ships positioned next to the oil rig. He said the Iranian military then boarded the rig and held the crew hostage for six hours, cutting off their communication. The crew of 19 Romanians and seven Indians on the Orizont rig were not harmed in the incident, according to GSP. We are in good physical shape, but not so emotionally due to the stress of the past 24 hours, Petcu told the Romanian media via satellite-phone on Wednesday during a press conference at the GSP headquarters in Constanta Black Sea port. While the details of the incident remain murky at best - with GSP claiming that the Iranian military attacked its rig and took its oil workers hostage, and officials in Tehran saying Iran was only attempting to board the rig to deliver a court order preventing GSP from leaving Iranian waters before its contracts were fulfilled - both sides agree that the incident was the result of a commercial dispute. Iranian ambassador to Bucharest Aliakbar Farazi responded strongly to the claims, telling a press conference the same day that blatantly false allegations are made for the benefit of one commercial company alone. "These reports are part of media misinformation and are false," Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi as saying on Wednesday. "The Romanian company, in continuation of its earlier illegal measure in moving away some drilling equipment from the area, intended to carry out its second robbery today. This was foiled thanks to the presence of Iranian police," Asefi said. Romanian presidential security adviser Sergiu Medar told media that the country's intelligence services had not briefed them on the alleged attack, and that all information had so far come solely from GSP. On Wednesday, two Romanian diplomats traveled from Tehran to the Orizont oil rig in the Persian Gulf to assess the situation and investigate the claims. However, Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Melania Marian told ISN Security Watch on Thursday that the ministry still could neither confirm nor deny that the drilling rig had been attacked by the Iranian military. The commercial disputeGSP president Gabriel Comanescu has accused Farazi of doing the bidding of Iranian private companies. According to Comanescu, Iran has been exerting pressure on GSP at the behest of Iranian companies interested in buying GSP's rigs in the Persian Gulf. Most foreign oil companies have pulled out of Iran due to the political situation, and the Iranians have no other rigs to purchase, according to the GSP president. However, Farazi claims that GSP is attempting to put an early and illegal end to its current contracts with two Iranian companies as it seeks more lucrative deals with other companies. Last week, GSP officials told the Romanian weekly magazine Saptamana Financiara that the company was seeking to withdraw its Orizont and Fortuna drilling rigs from Iranian waters in order to comply with a 1 July request by Germanischer Lloyd (GL) to subject the rigs to the regular certification procedure. Germanischer Lloyd supervises and ensures the quality of ships and maritime installations. In accordance with GL's request, last week GSP moved its Fortuna rig from its drilling position in Iranian waters, relocating to the Sharjah Emirate, UAE according to GSP. But that move was wracked with difficulties that culminated in a tough battle in Iranian courts after two Iranian oil companies protested. GSP won the court battle and relocated its Fortuna rig. According to Comanescu, a similar lawsuit was pending in Iranian courts regarding GSP's right to move the Orizont drilling rig for testing in UAE when the Iranian military allegedly attacked. Farazi denied Comanescus claim, saying the helicopter that allegedly attacked the GSP rig was in fact attempting to land on the heliport to dispatch the latest court order preventing the rig from moving out of Iranian waters. Comanescu said the alleged attack was unnecessary, as GSP could not have moved the rig without Iran's knowledge. The platform must be lowered to the water level and its pillars lifted from the sea-bed to put the rig in a floating position enabling it to be towed away. Three tug boats with an aggregated 15,000 horse power are then needed to tow it. In another twist to the commercial dispute, Comanescu said GSP had a lawsuit pending in the International Court of Arbitration in Paris against its business partner, Oriental Oil Dubai, a UAE company. GSP stopped delivering oil in April after Oriental Oil Dubai failed to honor contract terms requiring it to make available to GSP a US$100 million reserve fund to cover unpaid services. GSP later discovered that Oriental Oil Dubai had transferred the contract with no prior consent to two Iranian companies: Oriental Oil Kish and Petroiran Development Co (PEDCO). Rumors of scandal on both sidesComanescu alleges that the Iranian military's heavy handed response was intended to back the business interests of Oriental Oil Kish and of its vice-chairman of the board, Sirus Nasseri. However, some circles lend little credence to this theory, pointing out that in 2005 the new Iranian government went after Oriental Oil Kish and Nasseri. The official stance was that Nasseri might have endangered Irans security as he served both as a senior member on the countrys nuclear negotiations team and on the Oriental Oil Kish board. The board has close business relations with the US-owned Halliburton. In January 2005, the Dubai-based Oriental Oil Kish subcontracted a natural gas field off Irans coast to Halliburton. In August that same year, the Iranian government terminated the contract. However, according to the website HalliburtonWatch.org, critics claimed that the arrests of the Oriental Oil Kish executives were nothing more than a witch-hunt by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's new hardline leader, against his political rival and former president and presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose family owned part of Oriental Oil Kish. Romanias GSP is also surrounded by controversy. Some media outlets allege that Comanescu is a front for the business deals of Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, a Romanian businessman alleged to have run a pyramid scheme that went bankrupt in 2000. He was also indicted for several serious economic crimes but never brought to court. Critics have questioned how the virtually unknown Comanescu was able to obtain US$147 million in bank loans to buy six of Petroms drilling rigs in 2005. Diplomatic falloutIranian and Romanian diplomats are treading carefully over the matter to avoid elevating the conflict. Farazi referred to the two countries strong political and economic relations, while describing the GSP, which owns six drilling rigs, as just a very, very small private company, suggesting that the company was an insignificant part of Romanian-Iranian relations. In a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press, Mircea Has, Romanias charge daffaires in Tehran, was less diplomatic. Though he stopped short of calling the Iranian move against the rig an aggression, he said that occupying by force a civilian target is a complicated issue, since the oil rig is Romanian territory. The Romanian Foreign Ministry instructed Has to convey to the Iranian Foreign Ministry that in case the information [on the attack] is confirmed, the situation would be deemed extremely serious since, according to international law, using force against civilians to settle commercial disputes is unacceptable, a ministry press release said. After meeting Has on Wednesday, Iranian officials said they would start an official investigation into the matter. Romanian President Traian Basescu discussed the incident over the telephone on Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart, Ahmadinejad, the presidential office said in a Thursday statement. Ahmadinejad reportedly assured Basescu that Iran had undertaken no hostile act against Romania, and that the incident was no more than a commercial dispute to be settled in Iranian courts. The two presidents agreed there was room for improving trade between the two countries, which in 2005 had an aggregated value of US$93 million. In January this year, some 2,670 companies with Iranian capital operated in Romania, with an aggregated stock worth US$22.8 million. Meanwhile, GSP has pledged not to withdraw its rig from Iranian waters. In spite of the tensions of late, GSP will not pull its drilling rigs from the Persian Gulf, the company said in a press release. We have done good business with Iran so far, and we want to continue to operate in the region. Romanian media has been less than diplomatic, further dramatizing the affair. In a Wednesday editorial, The Cotidianul daily newspaper said: Iran entered on our territory by military force, which according to international law, was reason enough to declare war. The Evenimentul zilei daily newspaper opined that the move was a message from Iran warning the West of its ability to take its allies hostage. Anca Paduraru is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in Romania. Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM
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