The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) issued an advisory informing that the US has designated Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) as a Specially Designated National and Blocked Person (SDN) and therefore RMI will be unable to provide services to vessels linked to PdVSA.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two companies that operate in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy, pursuant to E.O. 13850, as amended. OFAC has also identified two vessels, which transported oil from Venezuela to Cuba, as blocked property owned by the two companies.
The US will send a hospital ship to assist in the refugee crisis resulting from instability in Venezuela. Namely, at the annual Washington Conference on the Americas at the State Department, Vice President Mike Pence announced the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will deploy to the US Southern Command area of operations next month.
Italy’s PB Tankers commented on OFAC’s decision to blacklist nine ships and four companies for breaching Venezuelan sanctions. The company stated that it’s shocked and concerned in OFAC’s action, in adding the company and a number of the company’s vessels to the current sanctions list in relation to trade with Venezuela. The company said in a release yesterday it will be taking immediate steps to ensure that it is delisted as a matter of urgency.
The US announced that it has designated a further nine vessels and four owning companies for involvement in the carriage of petroleum cargoes from Venezuela to Cuba. These sanctions cone a few days after the US blacklisted two shipping firms and their vessel for allegedly transporting oil from Venezuela to Cuba.
Steamship Mutual issued an advisory note on Wednesday, April 10, warning that US Treasury’s decision on blacklisting a Greek tanker demonstrates the agency’s willingness to interpret sanctions on Venezuela broadly, beyond the literal text of its rules – with potential implications for foreign tanker operators and oil traders.
The US Department of Treasury proceeded to black listing two shipping firms and many vessels, including one Greek tanker, in light of the US sanctions on Venezuela. The two blacklisted companies are Ballito Bay Shipping and ‘ProPer In Management Inc.’ of Athens, both sharing the same address in Piraeus.
On April 5, the US sanctioned two companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and one vessel used to transport oil to Cuba. Additional vessels, in which Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA has interests, are blocked property, according to Executive Order 13850. The US encouraged companies, banks, and other institutions not to provide services that support Maduro’s practices.
Three robbers armed with knives boarded a crude oil tanker which was anchored at Jose Terminal Anchorage, Venezuela, in the early morning hours of Thursday, 21st March, according to data provided by the IMB Piracy reporting centre.
The maritime contractor Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) is thinking of stopping managing Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA’s tankers by the end of March or during the early days of April, following US sanctions against the country, as Reuters reports.
