Norway considers imposing ban on ‘suspicious tankers’ to its ports

Norway has imposed another round of sanctions against Russia, joining similar measures by the European Union.

The country is still considering how best to impose a ban on access to ports for ships involved in oil transhipment that are suspected of violating the ban on oil imports or oil price restrictions.

The EU’s eleventh package of sanctions includes a ban on accessing ports for vessels participating in ship-to-ship transfers suspected of being in breach of the oil import ban or oil price cap, vessels that fail to notify of ship-to-ship transfers and vessels that manipulate or turn off navigation tracking systems when transporting Russian oil, Norway´s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

Norway is still considering how this prohibition can best be implemented in Norwegian law, and as the ministry reveals a regulatory amendment on this point will come later.

“Norway stand with Europe in responding to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in violation of international law. In solidarity with Ukraine, we have endorsed all EU sanctions packages. The eleventh package of sanctions aims to strengthen existing sanctions and crack down on their circumvention. This is important, because it is urgent to curb the cash flows that Russia is using to finance the brutal war of aggression,’ said Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt.

Norway have endorsed EU sanctions against Russia, with a few national adjustments.

Now the country has imposed a new round of sanctions which is essentially consistent with the measures in the EU’s eleventh package of sanctions.

“The sanctions are becoming more extensive and are a strong and clear European response to Russia’s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine. The possibilities for conducting trade with Russia are becoming increasingly limited and entail a high level of risk,” the ministry said.

Furthermore, in the eleventh package of sanctions, the EU has introduced a legal basis for limiting exports, of specified goods and technology to third countries that are considered to have a particularly high risk of circumvention of the sanctions. Norway have politically endorsed the measure, but for practical reasons will not implement it in Norwegian law at this time. The country will consider implementing the measure under specific terms.