The Weight of Sanctions
Instead of shipping out its oil to its traditional buyers in Europe and Asia, Iran has a glut of oil in storage. Its huge oil tankers sit in harbour, full of oil, with nowhere to go. Its land reservoirs are full of oil, waiting to be shipped out. Waiting, but not moving. The sanctions are having their effect, and the economy is notably wilting.And now its main oil terminal, along with other parts of its energy infrastructure has been assaulted by a fresh cyber-attack. The oil terminal on Kharg Island near the Gulf, its central oil ministry and the country's national oil company were targeted by a computer worm. But all's well, regardless; the country's officials assure that the attack has not affected oil exports or processing. (exports? see above)
Moreover, this attack and earlier attacks like Stuxnet have inspired Iran to create a special Supreme Council of Cyberspace to deal with these attacks. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on the case and all will be settled in due time, with Iranian experts meeting the challenge to solve the problem, and the systems will soon be back up.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, OPEC's second largest exporter after Saudi Arabia, is heavily reliant on crude oil sales which represent 80% of its foreign currency. And over half of its government finances. So this state of affairs does definitely not represent much to celebrate.
However, as Stuxnet had a limited effect on Iran's nuclear plans, this too shall pass, and "viper" in its turn will be neutralized. The devious, deviant hand of Israel is obviously involved. There will come a time that is known as pay-back; leave it to Iran's Ayatollahs, the intimates of Allah.
It is most definitely vexing that the country's fleet of crude carriers sit at anchor as floating storage. And it is beyond irritating that this new computer worm has been enabled to slow down the 'export of oil'. On the positive side, Tehran decoded the hard drives and databases on the U.S.'s RQ-170 Sentinel drone that had come down on its territory.
And the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are prepared to share their decoded, top secret technology acquired so serendipitously with its good friends, China and Russia, while itself having "started manufacturing models of the captured U.S. spy plane".
You lose some, then you win some.
Labels: Economy, Energy, Iran, Technology, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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