A group of Greek-managed tankers sanctioned over their trade with Venezuela may find themselves in Washington’s good graces again, the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) said on Tuesday, citing a US diplomat.
In a meeting with the UGS on 15 June, Washington’s ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt expressed “his confidence that the cases involving ships of Greek interests will have a positive outcome, especially after the recent statements of the affected companies that they will cease any commercial activity with Venezuela,” according to a UGS statement.
The meeting took place less than 48 hours after NGM Energy, Dynacom and Thenamaris — three of the four companies who each saw one of their tankers fall under US sanctions, publicly pledge to not load Venezuelan cargo any more.
All three companies are understood to be working towards lifting the sanctions against their vessels: NGM’s 300,000-dwt Voyager I (built 2003), Dynacom’s 150,000-dwt Chios I and Thenamaris’ 306,500-dwt Seahero. The fourth vessel is Chemnav Navigation’s 105,600-dwt Athens Voyager (built 2007).
The legal exposure of the Greek firms’ as a whole is believed to be limited, since the Office of Foreign Asssets Control (Ofac) only put the four ships and their registered owners on the sanctions list. It refrained from doing the same with their fleets overall or with their owners, who are members of the Procopiou, Moundreas, Coronis and Dinos Martinos families.
The effects of the sanctions on the four ships, however, are understood to be devastating. “They are effectively out of business and can’t even be refinanced,” one market player said.
High-profile Greek companies came 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.
Following Ofac’s move against the four Greek tankers on 2 June, however, much of that activity is expected to come to a close.
In its 15 June meeting with Pyatt, UGS president Theodore Veniamis endorsed the pledge of staying away from Venezuela in the name of the Greek shipping community as a whole.
“Veniamis emphatically stated that the UGS remains committed to implementing US sanctions measures and would continue to urge its members to refrain from conducting any business with Venezuela until there is a change in regime”.
The UGS added it “constantly informs” members on sanctions imposed by the US and the United Nations against specific countries “and invites its members to demonstrate due diligence in implementing all relevant guidelines”.
Recent Ofac advisories tightening sanctions against Iran, Venezuela and North Korea served as a wake-up call not just to Greek owners, but to the shipping industry as a whole. BP shipping said earlier on 16 June it was bringing in Israeli technology company Windward to boost sanctions compliance.
"The Ofac advisories published recently are a game-changer for the maritime and trade ecosystems regarding compliance requirements," said Mark Fortnum, BP Shipping's vice president of technical and vetting.
