One final thorny issue ahead of National Iranian Tanker Company’s (NITC) return to European trades appears to have been fixed. Ali Akbar Safaee, the ceo of the company, has told local media that insurance of the NITC fleet is now fixed. The ships had failed to get P&I cover during the sanctions era against Iran.
“With the resolution of insurance problems, international insurance institutes have expanded their coverage to Iranian vessels, which can now berth at all ports,” Safaee said over the weekend.
“Accordingly, all tankers that are under Iran’s ownership as well as any [foreign] tanker that enters Iran’s ports will not have any problem with regards to the issue of insurance,” he added.
NITC’s fleet is expected to start trading to Europe next month for the first time in five years, while the company is in negotiations with yards in China and South Korea for up to 25 tankers.
