Three out of the four Greek companies that saw the US impose Venezuela-related sanctions on their ships said over the weekend they will not touch the trade without express authorisation by Washington, or unless there is regime change in the Latin American country.
NGM Energy, whose 300,000-dwt Voyager I (built 2003) was one of a quartet of Greek-managed tankers put under US sanctions earlier this month, said on Saturday it will stay away from the business.
"In the light of the escalation of US trade sanctions against entities engaged in trade with Venezuela’s energy sector on 2 June, NGM has implemented a strict policy against servicing vessels intending to call at Venezuela or to load cargo of Venezuelan origin in the future, absent express US authorization," the company said in a statement to TradeWinds.
To drive the point home, the company said it "immediately diverted" away from Venezuela another one of its managed vessels heading there - the 298,600-dwt Commodore (built 2000). The Commodore "will not return to that trade", NGM said.
The company also said it was "fully cooperating" with US authorities to make sure it complies with Washington policies and to lift the sanctions imposed on the Voyager I.
Dynacom Tankers Management and Thenamaris have made similar statements.
As TradeWinds reported on 12 June, Dynacom said it would back off from any future business involving Venezuela until there is a change in the regime of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Separately, Greek press reports cite Thenamaris as saying that it adopted a "firm policy" against the transport of Venezuelan crude in its managed ships, as long as the American sanctions remain in place.
The US and about 60 other countries in the world, including Greece, recognise Maduro's political rival Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president.
High-profile Greek companies had come to play a major role in shipping Venezuelan oil in recent months, spurred by their known appetite for high-risk, high-reward trades and assured by legal advice that their actions did not fall foul of US sanctions.
NGM said on Saturday it had "a rigorous compliance programme in place" and that it sought "specialist external counsel" to "perform sanctions due diligence on all sensitive trades".
The US move earlier this month to impose sanctions on the ships managed by NGM Energy, Dynacom, Thenamaris and Chemnav Shipmanagement, was seen as an escalation in sanctions enforcement, as well as a warning shot to scare Greeks in general off the trade.
The US Treasury only put the four ships on the sanctions list, as well as the special purpose companies featuring as their registered owners. It refrained from proscribing the four management companies in general, or their owners in person.
