Spain denies port call to tanker for Russian sanctions breach

Spain's maritime authority denied entry into Spain’s Tarragona port to the Singapore-flagged tanker Maersk Magellan as it was transporting diesel sourced from a Russian ship.

PHOTO: The Maersk Magellan. VesselFinder

Maersk Magellan had requested a port call to unload diesel in Tarragona.

The port authority stopped Maersk Magellan from unloading its diesel after it found that the certificate of origin of the cargo indicated that the diesel came from the Cameroon-flagged tanker Nobel.

The Nobel originally sailed as a Russian-flagged tanker until it changed its flag to Cameroon last July, the Spanish maritime authority said.

EU sanctions prohibit Russian-flagged vessels from accessing EU ports. The ban also applies to vessels that have re-registered their flags from Russia to another state after February last year.

Further investigation revealed that the Maersk Magellan had loaded the diesel through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers from another tanker, the Elephant, which also received the diesel from the Nobel.

Last April, the Spanish Transport Authority denied entry to the Malta-flagged vessel Black Star for transporting cargo that originated from a Russian vessel.

According to VesselFinder AIS data, the Maersk Magellan is currently located off Kalamata in Greece, which has been a hub for dark STS transfers of Russian crude and products moving out of the Black Sea.

By Nithin Chandran

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