Russia’s largest shipping company Sovcomflot sanctioned by U.S. Treasury

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday (23 February) placed Russia’s state-owned shipping company and fleet operator targeting Joint Stock Company Sovcomflot (Sovcomflot) under sanctions.

The development was to responsibly reduce Russia’s revenue from oil sales.

In addition to designating Sovcomflot, OFAC is identifying 14 crude oil tankers as property in which Sovcomflot has an interest.

“The price cap on Russian oil continues to serve its twin goals of limiting Kremlin profits while promoting stable energy markets,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

“Today, we take the next step by targeting Russia’s largest state-owned shipping company and fleet operator, dealing a huge blow to their shadow operations. We are entering the next phase of increasing Russia’s costs in a responsible manner to mitigate risks.”

Concurrent with the designation of Sovcomflot, OFAC is also issuing a general license authorizing the offloading of crude oil (or other cargo) from these 14 vessels for a period of 45 days.

These vessels, all of which are beneficially owned by Sovcomflot, are:

1. ANATOLY KOLODKIN (IMO 9610808)
2. NS ANTARCTIC (IMO 9413559)
3. NS LION (IMO 9339313)
4. NS CONSUL (IMO 9341093)
5. NS BURGAS (IMO 9411020)
6. NS CAPTAIN (IMO 9341067)
7. NS COLUMBUS (IMO 9312884)
8. SAKHALIN ISLAND (IMO 9249128)
9. NEVSKIY PROSPECT (IMO 9256054)
10. GEORGY MASLOV (IMO 9610793)
11. LITEYNY PROSPECT (IMO 9256078)
12. KRYMSK (IMO 9270529)
13. NS CREATION (IMO 9312896)
14. NS BRAVO (IMO 9412359)

In addition, OFAC is issuing a general license authorizing transactions with all other Sovcomflot-owned vessels for the similar 45-day period.

Sovcomflot has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (UK) and is under certain European Union (EU) restrictions.

Photo credit: tommao wang on Unsplash
Published: 27 February 2024