Schlumberger Workers Sought by U.S. on Iran, Sudan Sanctions

The US government has interviewed one Schlumberger Ltd. worker and wants access to four other current and former employees as part of a probe into potential sanctions violations in Iran and Sudan, according to federal court documents.

The unnamed worker for the world’s biggest oil-services provider was interviewed on March 8 about a matter related to a company Schlumberger acquired in 2014. That undisclosed company was under investigation by the Justice Department, and Schlumberger later disclosed a potential “matter” related to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to filings.

Schlumberger “understands that the government remains interested in interviewing two current company employees and two former company employees,” according to an April 1 federal court filing by the company in Washington D.C. “The company is committed to continuing to work with counsel for the employees, where applicable, to schedule these interviews according to the government’s preferences.”

In 2015, Schlumberger pleaded guilty to sanctions violations in Iran and Sudan and was put on three-year probation. That probation was extended for another year so the government could investigate whether the company violated terms of its plea agreement. The Financial Times first reported that the government interviewed a Schlumberger worker.

Schlumberger has said in court filings it voluntarily reported four separate matters related to the Powers Act over the past two years, including the issue related to the company it acquired in 2014. Joao Felix, a spokesman for Schlumberger, declined to comment beyond the company’s most recent court filings.

“The company provided detail to the government regarding the substantial remediation it has undertaken in response to lessons learned from its investigation of the matters,” Schlumberger said in this week’s filing. It expects the term of the probation to expire at the end of this month “without issue.”

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Pompeo Urges EU to Get Tough on Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged European powers to get behind American measures to cut Iran off from world energy markets Thursday, during talks in Brussels.

While debate at the nearby NATO summit was marked by President Donald Trump's attacks on Germany's close energy ties with Russia, his top diplomat had another target.

Pompeo peeled off from Trump's summit entourage and joined US Energy Secretary Rick Perry and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the EU-US energy council.

Pompeo made no statement going into the talks, but his Twitter account showed what was on his mind.

"Iran continues to send weapons across the Middle East, in blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions," he wrote.

"Iran's regime wants to start trouble wherever it can. It's our responsibility to stop it."

Then, just before the talks started, he added: "We ask our allies and partners to join our economic pressure campaign against Iran's regime. 

"We must cut off all funding the regime uses to fund terrorism and proxy wars," he warned. 

"There's no telling when Iran may try to foment terrorism, violence and instability in one of our countries next."

Alongside the tweet he posted a map of Europe purporting to show the locations of 11 "terror attacks" US officials believe Iran or its proxy Hezbollah have carried out since 1979.

Washington dismayed Europe in May when Trump pulled out of the 2015 accord under which Iran agreed to controls on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

US sanctions have now "snapped back" into place and US officials have begun to hope that the economic pressure is fuelling domestic discontent against the Tehran regime.

European companies are reluctant to resume trade with Iran at the risk of being hit by US secondary sanctions, but the main EU capitals want to protect the accord.

They are thus resisting a US threat to impose sanctions on any entity trading in Iranian oil or dealing with the Iranian central bank after a November 4 deadline.

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