On 5th August, President Trump issued Executive Order 13884, reinforcing sanctions against Venezuela. The order targets the government of Venezuela and blocks all its assets and property in the US, while prohibiting the Venezuelan government to use the US financial system.
Two ships transporting Iranian LPG or liquid gas, involved in Iran-China deliveries, were reportedly detained in Singapore on July 22 and 24. The detentions come under US sanctions, banning exports of Iranian oil and gas. The two vessels are no longer listed as ‘under Sheriff’s arrest’. Specifically, on the ships seems to have been released, while the other one is still at port.
Brazilian top court ordered the state-run oil company, Petrobras, to refuel the two Iranian grain vessels that have been stuck on the Brazilian coast because of the imposed US sanctions. Chief Justice, Dias Toffoli, changed a lower court ruling that enabled Petrobras, to refrain from fueling the vessels. Thus, the oil company is now obliged to fuel the Iranian vessels.
Following the two Iranian vessels that remain stuck in Brazil with no fuel, additionally two more Iranian bulk carriers that came to Brazil also could be left stranded. Petrobras addressed that refuses to provide the tankers with bunker fuel because of the US sanctions imposed.
About two months after the White House banned the purchase of Iranian oil, tankers are offloading millions of barrels of Iranian oil at Chinese ports, resulting to piles of cargoes. Bloomberg reports that the store of oil could lead to a push down of global prices, in the possibility that Chinese refiners decide to draw on it.
The US is taking further action under maximum economic pressure campaign against the Iranian regime by imposing sanctions on a Chinese firm and its chief executive for knowingly purchasing or acquiring oil from Iran, violating US sanctions. The transaction took place after the expiration of China’s Significant Reduction Exception (SRE) on May 2, 2019, and was not covered by that SRE.
Two Iranian vessels remain at Brazilian ports for weeks, unable to return to Iran due to lack of fuel, as the state-run oil firm Petrobas refuses to sell them oil because of the sanctions imposed by the US.
As Reuters reports, Panama’s Maritime Authority that after Grace 1 was seized by British Royal Marines in Gibraltar, they de-listed it from Panama’s international boat registry as of May 29. The Panamanian Authority highlighted that Grace 1 was de-listed after receiving an alert indicating that the ship had participated in or was linked to terrorism financing.
The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it has de-listed Italian company PB Tankers from its sanction list. OFAC had designated the company on 12 April, for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.
In November 2018, the US government issued Significant Reduction Exemptions (SREs) waivers to eight countries that were committed to decreasing the purchase of Iranian oil; China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey.
