24/07/2010
Foreign companies step away from Iran
Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, said on March 1 it had tightened its policy on not doing business with Iran to prevent foreign subsidiaries from selling equipment to independent dealers who resell it to Tehran.
German engineering conglomerate Siemens said in January it would not accept further orders from Iran
Glencore ceased supplying gasoline to Iran in November 2009, according to traders.
As the Chemical manufacturer Huntsman Corp announced in January that its indirect foreign subsidiaries would stop selling products to third parties in Iran.
Accounting giants KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young have declared themselves free of any business ties to Iran.
China is in talks with Iran to use the Chinese yuan to settle transactions of oil and projects. Many oil refiners outside the United States still buy Iranian crude oil.
Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power station near the Gulf port city of Bushehr, and Russian officials say the reactor at the plant will be started up within months. Russia says the $1 billion Bushehr reactor is purely for civilian electricity supply and Iran will have to return all spent nuclear fuel rods to Russia under the deal.
The website of New York-based lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran lists scores of companies it says still do, or have done, business with Iran.
The list includes companies that have severed links with Iran.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in April that 41 foreign companies were involved in Iran's oil, natural gas and petrochemical sectors from 2005 to 2009. In a report in May, the GAO said seven of those companies received U.S. government contracts worth nearly $880 million.
These were: Daelim Industrial Company of South Korea; Eni; PTT Exploration and Production of Thailand; Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea; and GS Engineering and Construction of South Korea.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said on June 10 that a $7.6 billion project for export of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan would be unaffected by the imposition of fresh U.N. sanctions.( Reuters)
