Tag: US Sanctions

According to Bloomberg the costs of oil tankers are rapidly increasing, following the US's sanctions against Chinese companies accusing them of hauling Iranian crude. The rates for vessels hauling 2 million-barrel cargoes of Middle East oil to Asia rose to 19%; Meanwhile, the cost to transmit US crude to Asia on supertankers increased by 6.3% to $8.5 million on Thursday, as Bloomberg reports. 

The US Department of Treasury applied new sanctions against Russian entities and vessels that were involved in a sanctions evasion scheme, on delivering jet fuel to Russian forces operating in Syria.

US's Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed six sanctions on six Chinese companies, amongst them COSCO, for transporting oil from Iran in defiance of sanctions set in place in November 2018. Sanctioned COSCO affects the shipping industry and those oil companies and traders who have entered agreements. 

The US Department of Treasury blacklisted four vessels and four companies for reportedly helping Venezuela's petroleum export sector and in the delivery of the oil to Cuban buyers. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons.

Following a long journey across Mediterranean, the Iranian oil tanker 'Adrian Darya 1', which is at the centre of a major diplomatic dispute between Iran and the US, eventually arrived at the Syrian port of Tartus and sold its cargo, violating EU and US sanctions. 

In an updated FAQs document, US OFAC clarifies that, even for vessels carrying lawful cargo to and from Iran, the provision of bunkers is unlawful and subject to US secondary sanctions, wherever it takes place, in the event the bunkering operation involves, inter alia, US financial institutions.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has blacklisted a large 'oil-for-terror' shipping network that is directed by and financially supports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).

The owner of the Istanbul-based Ramor Group was sentenced in Federal District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to 27 months imprisonment in connection with his conviction for conspiracy to violate US sanctions by exporting specialized marine equipment from the US to Iran between 2013 to 2015.

On May 3, 2019, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments, which sets out OFAC’s views of the necessary elements of an effective economic sanctions compliance program.

As the Shipowners' Club informs, President Trump issued Executive Order 13871 (the Order) of 8 May 2019 ‘Imposing Sanctions with Respect to the Iron, Steel, Aluminum, and Copper Sectors of Iran’. The Order included a 90-day wind-down period, enabling those persons engaged in transactions to take necessary steps to avoid exposure to sanctions.