Next Challenge: Finding Insurers To Insure OIl Tankers Carrying Iranian Crude Oil -- Why I Love Blog, Reason #254 -- July 26, 2018

Updates

July 29, 2018: Iran starts self-insuring oil tankers to India.  

Iran has started to offer India cargo insurance and tankers operated by Iranian companies as some Indian insurers have backed out of covering oil cargoes from Iran in the face of the returning U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Iran is looking to continue to sell its oil to India—its second-largest single oil customer after China—even as some Indian refiners are said to be thinking of reducing oil imports from Iran for fear of running afoul with the U.S. sanctions and having their access cut off to the U.S. financial system.

Original Post

 

Wow, wow, wow! Why I love to blog. I said exactly this a few weeks ago, and I've said it at least twice. Leaders of foreign countries like India, China, etc., can say they will ignore US sanctions and continue to import oil from Iran. They can say that.

But, there's that little problem of risk ...

From Reuters via oilprice.com:

Hindustan Petroleum has cancelled a crude oil shipment from Iran after its insurer refused to provide coverage for the cargo on concern about U.S. sanctions, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Hindustan Petroleum, India’s third-largest state-owned refiner, ordered the 1-million-barrel shipment earlier this month, and after the refusal of its insurance company to cover a cargo loaded on an Iranian tanker, it tried to sell it on but could not find buyers.

The Indian refiner imports about 20,000 bpd of Iranian crude, which is a relatively small part of its daily consumption, which amounts to 316,000 bpd, but other Indian refiners could run into the same problem.

Hindustan Petroleum had just renewed its installation insurance when the insurance company refused to cover the cargo and bigger refiners might have to cancel Iranian cargoes, too, if their insurance policies happen to have to be renewed before the November 4 deadline given by Washington to all companies doing business with Iran before sanctions kick in.