The U.S. played a huge role in getting an Indian ship, which had loaded crude oil from Libyan region not under the Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya, off a United Nations sanctions list, reports said on Monday. The ship, Distya Ameya, which is owned by Mumbai-based Arya Ship Charterers and managed by Elektrans, was in commission with the United Arab Emirates. The ship was put on the sanctions list on April 27.
The ship, which had loaded 650,000 bbl of oil at Marsa el-Hariga port on April 25, was able to be denotified from the United Nations Security Council's sanctions list in 16 days. The crude oil was to be taken to Malta, the Times of India reported.
After the Libyan U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi raised the issue of the Indian ship loading oil from the National Oil Corporation (NOC), which is not internationally recognised, Deepak Shetty, the director-general of shipping with India's Ministry of Shipping, told the owners and operators of the ship to not unload the crude anywhere. India's permanent mission in New York worked in tandem with the U.S. authorities, which had told India it needed to adhere to international laws, and made sure the ship was taken back to Libya and the crude was offloaded.
"Achieving denotification of the vessel in merely 16 days is an unparallelled achievement which was made possible with the timely support and intervention from Indian Flag, particularly the director-general of shipping, Deepak Shetty, officials at Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian permanent representative to the United Nations and the Indian ambassador to Libya," Elektrans had been quoted on May 16, 2016, by shipping news website Splash 24/7 as saying in a statement.
When the matter came to light, Indian and U.S. officials were engaged in high-level talks in Washington. U.S. diplomats helped convince the Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya to withdraw the complaint with the U.N., the TOI reported.
