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When British Royal Marines helped seize an oil tanker off the southern tip of Spain on Thursday, they opened up a legal wrangle that could drag on for months.
The Grace 1, a supertanker able to haul 2 million barrels of crude, was arrested in the early hours of July 4 because Gibraltarian authorities said they had grounds to believe it was going to breach European Union sanctions by delivering crude oil to Syria. The cargo came from Iran, which protested against the seizure.
With the vessel now sitting inside the Bay of Gibraltar, close to the shore of the British overseas territory, one question being asked is what will it take for the tanker to be released. There are — according to Anna Bradshaw, a partner at the law firm Peters & Peters, who specializes in sanctions — two obvious ways for that to happen.
This option doesn’t seem likely. The government of Gibraltar could say that it made a mistake and that it doesn’t think the vessel was in fact breaching EU sanctions. That seems a little improbable, given special forces were flown in from the U.K. to carry out the seizure, and the subsequent international attention it garnered.
Though that option could see the ship leave the port and sail away, there’s no guarantee that the U.S. wouldn’t try to ensure that the vessel remained seized again as a result of its own sanctions, according to Bradshaw. In reality, since the U.S. has no such jurisdiction, it might struggle to do that, she said.
Alternatively, Iran could also successfully defend itself in the Gibraltarian legal system, allowing the vessel to depart.
A more likely sequence of events would see the vessel or its cargo detained for a more prolonged period, Bradshaw says. A sequence of events has already been triggered, that could ultimately lead to the ship being released:
All of this could still occur while the ship’s owners and managers answer charges of sanctions breaches. Again, that process is complicated and could be long, particularly given that it’s rare for EU sanctions breaches to have to be tried, and it’s equally rare for a supertanker of oil to be seized mid-transit. A long and wrangling court procedure could also mean that the sale or release of the vessel gets held up.
It’s also important to remember that Iran protested against the ship’s seizure, so there is likely to be a much wider political picture going on.
“EU asset freeze sanctions are so rarely enforced that you don’t really have much precedent to go on,†Bradshaw says. “It’s probably not going to be resolved in a hurry.â€
Source: Bloomberg
Photo used for illustration only, public domain, Author: Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet
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Seadrill Limited announced that the West Neptune has executed approximately six months of term extensions with LLOG Exploration Offshore, L.L.C in the US Gulf of Mexico. The extensions will commence in direct continuation of the existing term, and will keep the rig busy until Q3 2024, furthering Seadrill and LLOG’s long-term association. Total contract value for the extension is approximately $79 million. Source: Seadrill Join our mailing list here We are #1 on Google and Bing for the "Largest Mobile Energy Network" Come join our community! Download the Rig Lynx app here
Semisub rig owner Dolphin Drilling has inked a new contract with Peak Petroleum in Nigeria for its 1974-built Blackford Dolphin. The firm contract, which follows the letter of award in January, gives the Euronext Growth-listed owner of three rigs the potential to extend the unit’s backlog by a minimum of 120 days and up to 485 days. The deal adds to and will be a direct continuation of the previously announced 12-month contract with General Hydrocarbon Limited (GHL). Øystein Stray Spetalen-backed company said the effective dayrate associated with the minimum firm period of the contract is $325,000, including the mobilisation fee. “The final award of the contract for Blackford Dolphin shows the opportunities in Nigeria at a strong dayrate, in addition to building on the backlog for the rig. It also underlines the attractiveness of our assets, and we look forward to returning to revenue-generating operations in 2023,” noted Bjørnar Iversen, CEO of Dolphin Drilling. Source: Dolphin Join our mailing list here We are #1 on Google and Bing for the "Largest Mobile Energy Network" Come join our community! Download the Rig Lynx app here
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