US lifts sanctions on Yasa tanker after company appeal over price cap action

The first tanker blacklisted by the US during its crackdown on alleged Russian price cap breaches has been cleared to return to trading after a successful appeal that took more than six months.

The 116,000-dwt Yasa Golden Bosphorus (built 2007) and its registered owner, Ice Pearl Navigation, were both hit by sanctions in October after US authorities claimed it had lifted Russian crude above the price cap.

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Both were removed from the list on Friday with a minimum of fanfare. Ice Pearl Navigation is ultimately controlled by Yasa Shipping, one of Turkey’s largest owners.

Yasa Holding principal Emirhan Sabanci maintained that the owner had followed the rules surrounding the price cap and immediately appealed the ruling.

“The process has been completed and all restrictions have been lifted, effective immediately,” said Matthew Thomas of Blank Rome law firm, which had been acting for Sabanci.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control had claimed at the time of the listing that the Yasa Golden Bosphorus had carried ESPO crude above $80 a barrel.

It had said that the $60-a-barrel cap had been in place at the time, but Sabanci maintained that the company had the necessary attestation forms and sign-offs from insurance providers in line with the rules set down by the G7 group of countries.

Yasa Shipping has a book of chartering customers including major US oil companies. The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was on a three to five-month charter to ExxonMobil when the sanctions were announced in October.

It was hauling 178,000 barrels of Canadian crude from the Sorel-Tracy oil terminal in Quebec and discharged its cargo at the Baytown refinery in Texas following discussions between the charterer and US regulators.

Elevated aframax rates

It has remained off the coast of Texas since the listing while aframax rates stayed elevated, peaking at more than $80,000 a day in January, according to Baltic Exchange data.

The tanker had protection and indemnity insurance with Britannia P&I. The P&I provider said it had been previously assured that the tanker had been trading in line with price cap rules.

A Sovcomflot-controlled tanker, the 157,300-dwt suezmax SCF Primorye (built 2009), and its Dubai-based registered owner were also blacklisted on the same day as the Yasa vessel, marking the start of a major crackdown on ships and owners after critics complained that the sanctions were having little effect hitting Russia’s oil trade.

The US has now targeted 41 individual ships for alleged price cap breaches. The policy has had a chilling impact on owners, managers and insurers and led to some Western owners and insurers pulling out of the market.