The Panamanian Ship Registry has begun the process of canceling the registration of 17 tankers on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.
The Panamanian Ship Registry has reiterated its firm commitment to a zero-tolerance policy towards the misuse of vessel registries, as well as exclusion of vessels, companies, suppliers, and other interested parties listed in international sanctions recognized by the Panamanian government. This was stated in a statement released by the Registry.
August 1, the Panamanian Ship Registry also announced that it would no longer register tankers and bulk carriers (vessels for the carriage of goods in bulk older than 15 years, because they often end up in the “shadow fleet”, which they use to supply petroleum products, bypassing sanctions. According to statistics, 71% of ship detentions in the period from 2023 to the first half of 2025 concerned oil tankers and bulk carriers of this age.
