European refiners are already experiencing difficulties in shipping Iranian crude as shipowners are starting to avoid this route for fear of falling foul of US sanctions, industry sources said Wednesday. Several European-owned tanker owners are becoming reluctant to move Iranian stems for fear of secondary sanctions from the US just a week after President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. International buyers of Iranian oil have until November 4 to wind down contracts before the US reimposes sanctions on the oil, energy, shipping and insurance sectors, according to a US Treasury Department fact sheet. But the London P&I Club, which advises shipowners on insurance, issued a circular Wednesday to its members saying that its lawyers had been notified “informally” by the US Department of Treasury “that any new Iran-related transactions (entered into after May 8), if it were a sanctionable activity under the US secondary […]

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