Russian oil company denies violation of UN sanctions
Kazan, 3 March: Tatneft [oil company] has flatly denied buying 1m barrels of oil from Iraq [in the Saddam Husayn era]
in violation of the UN sanctions. Reports to this effect appeared earlier in some Russian and foreign media.
Neither Tatneft nor its affiliates have ever participated in any oil deals with Iraq during the period covered by UN
sanctions, says an official statement received by Tatar-Inform from the Tatneft press service. The Oil For Food
programme was the only exception. Tatneft also provided free training for 400 Iraqi oil industry workers at the request
of the Iraqi oil ministry and participated in humanitarian aid to the Iraqi population. But Tatneft has never violated
the UN sanctions in any way.
The company's press service has described the above-mentioned media reports as an attempt to mislead the public
and noted that they coincided with the intensification of efforts by Russian companies to return to the Iraqi
market.
Tatneft has recently sent to Iraq the first consignment of Kama tyres, made by the Nizhnekamsk tyre enterprise under
contracts earlier concluded within the framework of the Oil For Food programme.
The contracts were resumed after the UN Security Council passed Resolution No 1452 on 22 May 2003, under which UN
agencies again considered the expediency of continuing the implementation of the contracts under this programme. All
contracts to supply tyres to Iraq earlier signed by Tatneft are included in the list of priority contracts, the company
press service has said. Tatneft will supply more than 15,000 Nizhnekamsk tyres to Iraq in 2004.
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