Iran is helping Syria to export millions of dollars of oil, circumventing European Union sanctions that have effectively blocked the sale of Syrian crude since September, people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires this week.

Shipbrokers said two Iranian-owned ships, the Tour and the Amin, have picked up crude from Syria in the last two weeks, while a third, the Alvan, left Syria in early April carrying a cargo of motor oil.

One source familiar with the matter valued the three shipments at around $200 million.

Oil exports from Syria all but dried up after the EU imposed an oil embargo on the country in September in response to a crackdown on opposition to the regime by President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria pumps about 370,000 barrels of oil a day, about 150,000 of it exported, according to the International Energy Agency. Prior to the EU sanctions, those oil exports made up about one-third of Syria 's export income.

Iran itself is also the subject of increasingly tight sanctions, as Western powers seek to halt its nuclear program.

Both the Tour and the Amin, which are each capable of carrying 1 million barrels of crude, were recently registered in Bolivia , after they were stripped of their Maltese registration for violating EU sanctions. The Alvan is registered in Barbados .

The final destination of the vessels is not currently know. The Tour is currently en route to the Persian Gulf and is set to arrive on April 13, shipbrokers said. It isn't currently possible to track the Amin, they said.

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