OFAC advisory on petroleum shipments to Syria

OFAC has published an advisory for the global shipping industry on the risks posed to parties involved in petroleum shipments to the Government of Syria “regardless of the location or nationality of those facilitating such support”. The advisory identifies Iran and Russia as examples of states which have provided this petroleum.

The shipping practices include: falsifying cargo and vessel documents, ship-to-ship transfers, disabling automatic identification systems and changing the vessel name. The advisory also sets out risk mitigation measures for entities and individuals in the shipping industry, and provides a non-exhaustive list of vessels that have engaged in ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum destined for Syria.