By means of regulation no. 267/2012 of 23 March 2012, EU has, inter alia, introduced a prohibition against carrying Iranian oil – and insurance hereof.
The Council of the European Union has adopted regulation no. 267/2012 of 23 March 2012 on restrictive measures against Iran and repealing regulation (EU) no. 961/2012. Regulation no. 267/2012
The regulation contains, inter alia, a prohibition against importing, purchasing or carrying Iranian crude oil or oil products – as well as a prohibition against insuring imports, purchases or carriages of Iranian crude oil and oil products, cf. article 11.
In the maritime field, it is important that the regulation contains a third party liability for shipowners, etc. either fuelled by or carrying Iranian oil. In this connection, the insurance prohibition means that any insurance of Iranian oil within the scope of the regulation will be invalid. Thus, insurance against liability for oil pollution damage will not be valid if Iranian bunkers oil/oil as cargo is carried.
In this connection, it must be stressed that, if the underlying insurance lapses, this will mean that bunkers and/or CLC certificates issued by the Danish Maritime Authority are no longer valid. Therefore, the ship will under these circumstances be without any valid certificates and must not engage in trade.
The regulation contains a transition period and will become fully effective when the transition period ends on 1 July 2012.
[mappress]
Source: DMA, July 6, 2012