Veronica

The 'Lana', sailing under Iran flag since Aug 2, which had been arrested on the island of Evia on Apr 15 and loaded crude oil at Sirri Island, has docked at Syria to unload to unload its cargo of about 700,000 barrels of crude oil. The AIS was turned off on Nov 21, west of the port of Baniyas.

The Supreme Court of Greece has dealt another blow to the United States’ efforts to seize the Iranian crude oil cargo aboard the 'Lana' anchored in Piraeus. On July 26, the Court said it saw no reason to overturn a lower court ruling from June that released the cargo and ordered it returned to the tanker which Iran has claimed as one of its fleet. The tanker has spent the past three months caught in the legal battle between the United States and Iran. U.S. officials in April had sought authorization from the Greek courts to seize the cargo aboard the tanker after it anchored off the island of Evia. At the time she was identifying as a Russian-owned tanker named 'Pegas', while the Iranian watchdog group UANI highlighted the shadowy nature of the vessel reporting that it was carrying 700,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil loaded in August 2021. The vessel was believed to have been seeking a port or planning a ship-to-ship transfer in the Mediterranean when it encountered a mechanical problem in April. While the U.S. was pursuing the vessel and its cargo through the Greek courts, the tanker changed its identity. It was renamed Lana' and began displaying the Iranian flag for its registry. Some reporting services however continue to say that the vessel is owned by Russian interests. The U.S., however, had sanctioned the vessel for its alleged activity in the Iranian oil industry prior to the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was on those grounds that the U.S. sought to seize the oil saying that the ship was known to be violating international sanctions on the trade in Iranian oil. After winning an initial court ruling, the U.S. chartered two tankers and ordered that the vessel be offloaded to its chartered vessels which were to transport the oil to Texas. The first of the tankers, Ice Energy, completed its transfer in June. The case however went back to the courts before the second tanker could begin offloading the oil. The owner of the two tankers sought to intervene in the case last week appealing to the Greek Supreme Court. They reported that they were caught between the U.S., which was enforcing its contract and threatening penalties for failure to complete the contract and the courts which had ordered the release of the oil. Both the 'Lana' and the 'Ice Energy' have remained since early July at the anchorage, but the 'Ice Energy' nay shortly begin the transfer of the oil back to the 'Lana'. Greek officials have been careful to separate this incident from Iran’s holding of two laden Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf. Iran admitted that the seizure was in retaliation for the seizure of the oil from the 'Lana'. It is widely believed that the release of the two Greek tankers is dependent on the transfer of the oil back to the 'Lana'.

The 'Pegas' remains seized by the Greek authorities since April 20, The tanker originally was registered under the Russian flag, but has changed its flag to an Iranian one to avoid EU and US sanctions over the Ukraine war, and was renamed 'Lana' as a Russian maneuver to facilitate Russian exports. The ship, with 19 Russian crew members on board, was detected by Greek authorities on April 8 and seized under EU anti-Russian sanctions. The tanker was later released as its new owner, TransMorFlot LLC, a Russian shipping company, was not included in the sanctions list. However, on May 8, the US State Department imposed new sanctions targeting Russian maritime-related companies, including the TransMorFlot LLC, leading to the blocking of all 16 of the company's vessels. "The companies that provide services to the ship, including maritime insurance companies that cover liabilities such as fuel leaks, shipwrecks and personal injury, have decided in these complex circumstances to stop trading with the ship. As a result, the tanker cannot do anything.