In December, the White House said foreign financial institutions could be sanctioned if they worked with entities in Russia’s defense sector. Wednesday’s expansion of sanctions now means that those institutions could face sanctions if they work with almost any sanctioned Russian entity.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2404
[December 22 2023 ]
Typical sections:
“Sec. 11. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, and with respect to subsection (a)(ii) of this section, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce, is hereby authorized to impose on a foreign financial institution the sanctions described in subsection (b) of this section, upon determining that the foreign financial institution has:
(i) conducted or facilitated any significant transaction or transactions for or on behalf of any person designated pursuant to section 1(a)(i) of this order for operating or having operated in the technology, defense and related materiel, construction, aerospace, or manufacturing sectors of the Russian Federation economy
(d) The Secretary of Homeland Security, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe rules and regulations to collect, including through an authorized electronic data interchange system as appropriate, any documentation or information as may be necessary to enforce subsections (a)(i)(B)-(D) and (c) of this section as expeditiously as possible.”;
[December 13 2023 Treasury Sanctions for supplying Russia’s Military-Industrial Base ]
Treasury Imposes Sanctions on More Than 150 Individuals and Entities Supplying Russia’s Military-Industrial Base
Treasury said it hit more than 150 people and companies with punitive measures, targeting third-country military procurement networks that have helped Russia acquire machine tools, key technologies and equipment for the Kremlin’s industrial base.
Chevron to Aphrodite gas field off Cyprus
1 December, 2023
December 1, 2023 NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Cyprus government and U.S. energy company Chevron have reached a deal on how to develop the Aphrodite gas field, the first to be discovered under the seafloor off Cyprus, an official Friday. The field is estimated to hold 4.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.
[September 22 2023 Cretan gas reserves ‘protected’ ]
Maltese-flagged Nautical Geo docked September 22 2021 at Heraklion port on the Greek island of Crete. “The ship in question was radioed and warned not to enter the Turkish continental shelf. There was no physical intervention.”
Greece and Turkey have been competing over the exploration of gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean amid a lengthy dispute over their respective territorial waters. Turkey also considers itself the guardian of breakaway northern Cyprus’s energy rights in the region.
[ December 13 2020 Libya releases Turkish-owned cargo ship ]
LNA release: The Mabrouka ship, flying the Jamaican flag, after inspecting it and investigating its crew, released the Turkish vessel after it had paid a fine for sailing in the Libyan territorial waters. They detained the vessel and the 17 crew members on board, including nine Turkish citizens amongst them.
AIS Name MABROUKA
Type Sailing ship
Flag United States
IMO —
MMSI 367715490
Callsign WDI6124
Year Built —
[November 29 2020 German navy searches Turkish flag ship ]
Turkey has protested the incident on the Mediterranean Sea, insisting personnel from the German frigate Hamburg illegally searched the Libya-bound freighter Rosaline-A on Nov. 22. Germany has rejected Turkey’s complaints, arguing the frigate’s crew acted correctly.
ROSELINE A
Container Ship, IMO: 9163984,
Current AIS Destination Estimated Time of Arrival
Misurata Nov 23, 20:00
A spokesman for Germany’s Defense Ministry said that German marines had abseiled [a controlled descent off a vertical drop,] onto the vessel, the “Rosaline-A,” from a helicopter after no response was received from Turkey to a request to carry out a search.
The spokesman said the decision to search the vessel had been taken by the Irini mission command in Rome. The search was ended when word came from Turkey that it refused permission, he said, adding that “no forbidden goods were detected” and that the crew had been cooperative.
Turkish officials said the “Rosaline-A” was transporting paint and humanitarian aid.
Turkey is the main backer of the Tripoli administration, led by Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, and has sent military personnel and equipment to aid it in the conflict. It has previously said Germany’s participation in the Irini arms embargo mission shows that Berlin is not impartial in the conflict, claiming that the embargo benefited Haftar.
[September 8 2019 Ship-to-ship transfer discharges in Syria ]
MT Savior
While the Grace 1/Adrian Darya 1 saga is currently the highest-profile case of opaque shipping practices, it is only one example of what the US Treasury has described as “deceptive practices by shipping companies obfuscating the destination and recipient of oil shipments”. https://wp.me/pEe9-1ha
As of Monday evening, Adrian Darya 1 was heading north up the Syrian coast, however its precise location was made more difficult to track after it switched off its AIS signal at around 16:00GMT. It is awaiting what analysts predict will be a ship-to-ship transfer via one of a handful of Iranian-linked tankers thought to be in the region, also currently with no Automatic Identification System signals active. Silvia 1, a 159,711dwt, Iran-flagged tanker, disappeared from AIS view on August 29 having entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, expected to deliver its cargo to Syria’s Banyas refinery. Stark I, a 159,681 dwt, Iran-flagged crude tanker, took a similar route, also dropping off AIS late on August 30. Another Iranian tanker, the 159,981 dwt Sarak,exited the Suez on Monday and if the pattern repeats, it will shortly ‘go dark’.
Meanwhile, the Comoros-flagged suezmax Savior looks like it may be currently discharging Iranian crude to Banyas. Its AIS was switched off on August 28 as it approached Banyas after a period of active storage off Turkey, having originally loaded at Khor al Zubair via a ship-to-ship transfer.
Hue and Cri 