Spain prohibited the entry of Singapore-flagged tanker Maersk Magellan into Tarragona port due to it transporting oil products originating from a Russian ship, Spain’s Transport Ministry said on 10 February.
In a statement, the ministry said Maersk Magellan was planning to unload the diesel at Tarragona, after receiving the cargo from the Cameroon-flagged Nobel, which until 1 July sailed under a Russian flag, the Manifold Times reports.
The ministry added the denied entry was done to comply with EU regulations prohibiting access to any vessel registered under the Russian flag after 16 April 2022 and also to Russian-flagged ships that switched to another flag after 24 February 2022.
The Tarragona Maritime Captaincy learnt that Maersk Magellan had carried out a ship-to-ship transfer from a third ship, Elephant, in the Alboran Sea in the vicinity of El Estrecho.
During investigations, the certificate of origin for the diesel cargo of Elephant was found, stating it came from the Nobel
“After these verifications, today the prohibition of access to the Port of Tarragona to the ship Maersk Magellan has been agreed for having breached the European regulations (article 12 of EU Regulation number 833/2014) that prohibits deliberate participation in activities whose purpose or effect is to circumvent the prohibitions established by the European Union after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia,” the ministry stated.