The UK Treasury has lifted sanctions on two Iranian oil companies, the first sanctions to be lifted since the P5+1 agreement was reached with Iran earlier this month.
The lifting of sanctions comes after Petropars Aria Kish Operation and Management and Petropars Resources Engineering Kish successfully applied to have their sanctions listings annulled before the General Court of the EU in May and the time to appeal the court ruling expired.
On behalf of the two companies, the London-based sanctions law firm Zaiwalla & Co. Solicitors argued that the Council had made an error of assessment in deciding that they had provided support to the Iranian government to avoid sanctions. The judges in the case ruled in favour of the two entities.
Pavani Reddy, managing partner of Zaiwalla & Co., who acted for the successful Petropars companies in the EU Court has said: “It is welcome news that following the Iran nuclear settlement agreement the EU Council has decided not to appeal the General Court’s decision to annul the sanctions imposed against two Petropars companies, POMC and PRE.
These companies are no longer under the asset freeze which should allow them to resume normal operations. POMC and PRE are part of the Petropars group which is the largest Oil & Gas Developer involved in extracting natural gas from the South pars gas field in Iran.
South Pars gas field is said to be the largest offshore natural gas reserve in the world.”
Zaiwalla & Co.has represented several sanctions-hit enterprises in Iran, including Bank Mellat, Iran’s largest private Bank. Successfully lifting its sanctions, the Bank is now pursuing a damages claim of $4bn against the UK Treasury.
“There is now an appetite amongst scores of Iranian companies to challenge their sanctions and follow suit,” the firm said in a statement.
