EU closes its ports to ships transshipping Russian oil in violation of price сaps

In its 11th package of sanctions, the EU has banned access to European ports for tankers transshipping Russian oil ship-to-ship suspected of violating the price cap imposed by the G7 and the EU.

Source: press release from the European Commission, reported by Interfax-Ukraine

Details: A similar ban will be applied if the competent authorities have reasonable grounds to suspect that captains are illegally interfering with, disabling or otherwise disrupting the navigation system during the transport of Russian oil and oil products in violation of international agreements, rules and standards.

According to the officially published document, "access to EU ports and gateways is prohibited from 24 July 2023 for any ship engaged in ship-to-ship transshipment at any point of the voyage towards an EU port or gateway if the competent authorities have a reasonable ground to suspect that the ship is in breach of the prohibitions (on the import of Russian oil and oil products to the EU, as well as in breach of the price cap)".

The competent authority must deny access if the vessel fails to notify at least 48 hours in advance of a ship-to-ship transfer taking place in the exclusive economic zone of an EU Member State or within 12 nautical miles of the baseline of its coastline.

The requirement to ban a vessel if it switches off transponders also applies to those voyaging to an EU country and if the vessel violates the ban on imports of Russian oil and oil products and the price cap condition.

Port entry bans do not apply if a vessel is seeking rescue, in the event of a shipwreck, or for reasons of safety or life at sea. The authorities may also allow access to EU ports if they consider it necessary for humanitarian purposes.

If the competent authorities refuse to allow a vessel to enter their ports, they must immediately inform other EU Member States and the European Commission.

For the purposes of tracking the ban, authorities should use, in addition to any national system, the integrated maritime information available on the SafeSeaNet platform.

Background:

On 5 December, the EU Council's decision to cap the price of Russian oil and ban the sea transportation of Russian oil to third countries came into force, after which Russia's oil revenues began to fall.

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