The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) updated its Advisory to the maritime petroleum shipping community, to highlight risks associated with shipments to Syria. This advisory updates a previous one on 20 November 2018.
The Greek Coast Guard confiscated six tons of cannabis and about three million “Captagon” amphetamine pills, inside a Syrian freighter, in the Port of Heraklion, Crete. The ship was heading to Libya and was intercepted by off Crete on December 5.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued an advisory notice concerning the risks of transporting petroleum shipments to Syria. OFAC warns that such actions could breach U.S. sanctions.
The London P&I Club reminded operators that both the European Union and US are applying trade sanctions against Syria. These include prohibitions on the transport of crude oil and petroleum products from Syria, as well as restrictions on Syria’s oil and gas and electricity generating industries amongst a number of other measures.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has identified nine targets in an international network through which Iran, working with Russian companies, provide barrels of oil to Syria. According to the US, a Syrian national and his Russia-based company delivered oil from Iran to Syria.
President Trump signed, on March 7, a new Executive Order entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States”, which bans the entry to US for crewmembers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, unless they hold valid visas prior to March 16th. Also, they will not be able to obtain visas, until 90 days after March 16th.
Both the European Union and the United States continue to apply trade sanctions against the Government of Syria and a number of designated Syrian persons and entities. This circular provides a general overview of key sanctions that apply to Syria shipping and related insurance activities and also describes the potential impact of certain recent developments.
