Official: Iran’s Second Insurer to Offer P&I Cover to Oil Tankers

Iran announced on Tuesday that a second domestic insurance company will start providing P&I (protection and indemnity) insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude by mid March.

Speaking to FNA in Tehran on Tuesday, Director General of Bimeh Markazi (Central Insurance of the Islamic Republic of Iran) for Admittance Affairs said a “specialized insurance company will begin giving P&I insurance coverage to Iranian oil tankers in one of Iran’s Southern free trade zones by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2013)”.

At present, Mualem Insurance Company is the only Iranian firm providing P&I insurance to Iranian tankers.

In December, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi said that the country’s oil industry has set up an international insurance company to insure the tankers carrying its crude shipments to customers worldwide.

“The first step to confront these sanctions was establishing an international insurance company which insures Iranian oil tankers and we have taken effective measures to get rid of these sanctions, and it is now evident that we have left behind the difficult conditions of the early days of the sanctions,” Qassemi said, addressing a seminar in Tehran.

Earlier in December, Managing-Director of Iranian Mualem Insurance Company Mahmoud Tadayoun said his company had started insuring domestic oil tankers after the US and EU boycotted all those vessels carrying Iranian crude cargoes.

He said that Mualem Insurance Company is exclusively in charge of providing P&I insurance to Iranian tankers.

Also Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi had earlier this year announced that domestic insurance companies have defused impacts of the enemies’ (US and EU) sanctions on the country’s trade exchanges by providing proper insurance coverage for export and import cargos.

“The Iranian insurance companies have now managed to foil enemies’ efforts for limiting Iran’s foreign trade by giving proper insurance coverage to import and export consignments,” Rahimi said, addressing the 19th national and 5th international insurance and development seminars in Tehran.

“Iran’s insurance industry has not only circled out sanctions, but also broken some countries’ cruel monopoly in insurance coverage for big and complex projects, such as refineries, airports and shipping,” he added.

Earlier this year, Deputy Head of Iran’s Bimeh Markazi for Planning and Development Rahim Mosaddeq said the implementation of the US-engineered EU sanctions against Tehran has left no negative impact on the country’s insurance industry since Iran can easily bypass embargos.

“As regards the sanctions, specially the sanctions imposed by enemies on Iran’s insurance industry, we seek to bypass the sanctions and defuse them in any possible way,” Mosaddeq said.

There are 25 insurance companies in Iran today and all except one are privately owned.

Under pressure from the United States, the EU foreign ministers approved new sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors last January.

The sanctions, which prevent EU member states from purchasing Iran’s oil or extending insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude, came into effect on July 1.

On August 1, 2012, the US Congress approved more illegal embargoes against Tehran, which seek to punish banks, insurance companies and shippers that help Tehran sell its oil.