Photo: Shutterstock / By Zheltikov Dmitry
By Florence Tan and Shu Zhang SINGAPORE, Oct 10 (Reuters) – A supertanker owned by a subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian), under U.S. sanctions for allegedly transporting Iranian oil, has docked in Singapore to discharge Middle East crude, shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon showed on Thursday.
The Coswisdom Lake, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) capable of holding 2 million barrels of oil, docked at Exxon Mobil Corp’s terminal on Jurong Island late on Wednesday.
The tanker is owned by Pan Cosmos Shipping & Enterprises Co, which is a fully owned subsidiary of COSCO Dalian, a document issued by Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation on Oct. 1 shows.
“This discharge operation is in compliance with U.S. laws. ExxonMobil follows the law everywhere we operate and we are in full compliance with the sanctions,” the U.S. company said in an e-mail statement.
In one of the biggest sanctions actions taken by the U.S. government since its crackdown on Iranian oil exports, Washington on Sept. 25 announced sanctions on Chinese tanker companies, including COSCO Dalian, for alleged involvement in the transportation of oil from Iran.
Coswisdom Lake loaded crude from Qatar and Abu Dhabi around mid-September and arrived in Singapore on Sept. 30, shipping data showed.
The tanker left Singapore on Oct. 6 without discharging its cargoes and sailed in the South China Sea for a couple of days before heading back to Jurong Island on Wednesday, tracking data showed.
The absence of COSCO Dalian’s supertankers, which makes up 3.3% of the global VLCC fleet, has driven up global freight rates.
(Reporting by Florence Tan, Shu Zhang and Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.
This article contains reporting from Reuters, published under license.
Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update
Essential maritime and offshore news, insights, and updates delivered daily straight to your inbox
By Travis Teo SINGAPORE, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Hit by cabin fever, hundreds of Singapore residents itching to get out of the tiny country boarded a “cruise to nowhere” on...
By Roslan Khasawneh SINGAPORE, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Asian refiners’ profit from producing very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) climbed to six-month highs this week as output cuts keep supplies...
By Jennifer Hiller, Arathy S Nair and Shariq Khan Oct 30 (Reuters) – U.S. oil majors Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp cut spending aggressively in the third quarter in...
Subscribe to gCaptain Daily and stay informed with the latest global maritime and offshore news
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
