A supertanker by COSCO Shipping Tankers has received a temporary waiver from US sanctions. The ship is now able to discharge crude oil cargoes. In fact, the VLCC Coswisdom Lake, which discharged some crude in Singapore last week, offloaded the rest of its oil at Brunei on October 16, Reuters said citing shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon.
However, the sanctions will resume after the cargoes are discharged. Moreover, sanction waivers were also on the table for a very large crude carrier, which was carrying US oil to South Korea.
On Wednesday, September 25, the U.S. imposed sanctions on COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian), along with China Concord Petroleum Co., Limited, Kunlun Shipping Company Limited, Pegasus 88 Limited, and COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management Co, Ltd as well as the Chinese companies Kunlun Holding Company Ltd. and COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co., Ltd., for knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the transport of oil from Iran, not complying with the according sanctions set in November 2018.
After that, in the timeframe of September 30 – October 7, 14 COSCO Dalian ships, including nine VLCCs, have shut off their ship-tracking transponders and have stopped sending location data from their automatic identification system (AIS).
Reuters reports that almost a third of the tankers owned by COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) have shut off their AIS systems after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the company for reportedly shipping Iranian crude.
