The UN Security Council Committee has blacklisted India-flagged tanker Distya Ameya for being involved in attempts to “illicitly export crude oil from Libya.”
Namely, the tanker is reported to have loaded 650,000 barrels of crude oil shipped by the rival eastern Libya government for UAE-based DSA Consultancy FZC, and had left Marsa el-Hariga port late on Monday, Reuters writes.
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) tried to prevent the ship from loading at Tobruk’s Hariga terminal, claiming the export cargo was illicit, however the parallel Beida government managed to load the ship.
As informed, the designation for the 95,420 DWT vessel is valid from 27 April to 26 July 2016, unless terminated earlier by the committee.
The committee said that the vessel may have been sold recently to an unknown buyer and the vessel’s name may have changed to Kassos.
As of 26 April 2016, the vessel was north of Al-Bayda, Libya, heading for Malta.
As the designation prohibit the ship from entering any ports, the tanker has been denied entrance to Malta, according to Malta’s port authority cited by Bloomberg, adding that all its requests for entering Maltese territorial waters would be refused.
World Maritime News Staff