US sanctions network smuggling oil from Libya to Europe.

Catogory : Market Report

US blacklists six people, 24 companies and seven vessels in move aimed to block ‘robbing’ Libya’s oil.

The United States has issued a new round of sanctions targeting oil smugglers in Libya aimed at blocking exploitation of natural resources that is driving instability, the US Treasury Department said on Monday.

In a statement, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was sanctioning six people, 24 companies and seven vessels in a move that prohibits Americans from engaging with those targeted and freezes any related property under US jurisdictions.

The sanctions target people from Libya, Malta and Egypt for “involvement in the smuggling of petroleum products from Libya to Europe”.

Darren Debono, a Maltese former international footballer, allegedly formed with others an “unofficial consortium” to smuggle Libyan oil into a Malta and Italy.

“Oil smuggling undermines Libya’s sovereignty, fuels the black market and contributes to further instability in the region while robbing the population of resources that are rightly theirs,” OFAC’s