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BP stops refueling Iranian passenger planes
BP has told its airport fuel depots to stop supplying Iranian passenger planes, after the US threatened to penalize foreign companies selling gas to Tehran.
It came just days after President Barack Obama signed sanctions prohibiting the sale of refined petroleum products worth more than £3.3 million a year.
But experts claimed the oil firm's move was an attempt to keep the US administration happy following weeks of strained relations caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP's move was revealed after the Iranian authorities said its planes had been refused fuel in Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Kuwait in recent days.
BAA, which owns Heathrow Airport, and other civil bodies have denied taking action, which would go beyond the sanctions agreed at the United Nations last month.
But The Daily Telegraph has been told that BP stopped its contract to provide fuel to at least one Iranian air company in Dubai, an important hub for Iranian travel, three days ago. BP is also understood to have sent orders to its European subsidiaries and partners telling them to withdraw services from Iranian airlines.