The government of Saudi Arabia is investigating a smuggling operation that shipped cheap oil to Europe for over eleven years, a report says.
A number of companies have been incriminated in the illegal business of exporting discount-priced oil to some European countries, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported on Saturday without disclosing details of their transactions or the names of the recipient states.
According to the report, the unidentified companies had bought low-priced oil under the guise of using it to produce chemicals domestically, but instead they sent it overseas to undisclosed destinations in Europe.
The amount of the smuggled oil remains a secret as the paper has not divulged further information on the quantity of the illegal merchandise smuggled out of the “Red Sea industrial port of Yanbu.”
A committee with representatives from different government ministries, the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, and three other bodies are probing the case.
State officials have declined to comment on the report.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s number two oil producer after Russia.
GHN/HRF – Press TV
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