Jeremy Paner Discusses an OFAC License Involving a Major Azeri Gas Project with Bloomberg

Jeremy Paner discussed the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extending a license allowing BP to conduct certain payments involving sanctioned Iranian and Russian partners in a major gas project in Azerbaijan with Bloomberg.

The license covers BP’s partnership with sanctioned partners in Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan’s largest gas field, as the U.S. continues to apply economic and financial pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. has taken a “hands-off approach to the Shah Deniz project,” Paner said.

According to Paner, these exemptions could be interpreted as undercutting Washington’s hardline stance toward Iran, as the U.S. has sought to economically isolate the country through sanctions and more recently a naval blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz, designed to choke off its oil exports.

Although Iran’s participation in Shah Deniz has largely been shielded by carve-outs aimed at supporting European energy security, Iran- and Russia-related sanctions have complicated payments necessary to maintain the project.

“OFAC’s non-public actions do not entirely match absolutist rhetoric relating to Iran,” Paner said. “I expect that to continue, irrespective of the developments in the current conflict.”

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