The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in Washington DC has slapped sanctions on a tanker owner and two of its ships over alleged shipments of Russian and Iranian oil.
The Marshall Islands-registered company Gemini Marine becomes the latest shipping entity in a rapid series of sanctions being dished out by the US Treasury.
Two tankers belonging to Gemini Marine have also been sanctioned – the 105,000 dwt Frunze, a 21-year-old, Cook Islands-flagged tanker, and the 150,000 dwt, 21-year-old Izumo, a tanker flagged with Gabon, a registry that has grown rapidly in step with the expansion of the so-called dark fleet of tankers trading around the world.
OFAC has been especially busy targeting shipping over the past month, adding many crude tankers, as well as taking aim at Russia’s LNG fleet.