Frontline Won’t Ship Iranian Crude
European Union sanctions on Iran are tightening after Bermuda’s Frontline Ltd. joined ship operators controlling more than a hundred other supertankers and announced they would stop loading cargoes from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest producer.
Frontline companies including Hamilton, Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd. and Frontline 2012 won’t ship Iranian crude, said Jens Martin Jensen, chief executive officer of Frontline Management AS, said yesterday [Feb. 12]. Frontline operates 43 very large crude oil carriers [VLCCs], according to its website.
The Bloomberg financial news network reports today [Feb. 13] that Bermuda-based Frontline joins New York-based OSG — which operates a pool of 45 supertankers belonging to seven owners — in boycotting Iranian crude along with the 50-plus vessels in the Cpanhagen-based Nova Tankers A/S fleet.
Previous efforts to curb Iran’s oil income and stop it from developing nuclear weapons failed because the structure of the shipping industry means vessels are often managed by companies outside the US or European Union [EU].
A new EU embargo on Iranian oil agreed to on January 23 extended the ban to ship insurance.
With about 95 percent of the tanker fleet insured under rules governed by European law, there are fewer vessels able to load in Iran.
“It’s the insurance that’s completed the ban on trading with Iran,” said Per Mansson, a shipbroker who handles tanker charters. “Last summer, many countries started to be a little bit tougher, but the insurance is the real trigger.”
