The recent buildup in traffic in the Black Sea eased further on Tuesday, as the number of tankers waiting to pass through Istanbul’s Bosporus on the way to the Mediterranean fell to eight from 13 a day earlier, a shipping agency said.
In a new measure that has been in force since the start of this month, Türkiye is requiring vessels to provide proof they have insurance in place for all circumstances covering the duration of their transit through its straits or when docking at Turkish ports.
Five tankers were set to go southbound through the Bosporus on Tuesday, the Tribeca shipping agency said. On Friday, there had been 20 ships waiting in the Black Sea to pass through the strait.
At the Dardanelles, further south than the Bosporus, eight tankers were set to pass through southbound on Tuesday, while six tankers were waiting to be scheduled, Tribeca added.
The average waiting time at the Bosporus for southbound tankers fell from 2.9 days to 3.4 days from 3.8 days to 4.3 days on Monday, Tribeca said. The average waiting time peaked at above six days last week.
Türkiye’s maritime authority said it would continue to keep out of its waters oil tankers that lacked appropriate insurance letters.
The Transport and Infrastructure Ministry’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs last week said the insurance checks on ships in its waters were a "routine procedure" and stressed it was unacceptable to pressure Türkiye over the measure.
The regulation came into effect before the G-7, the European Union and Australia agreed to bar shipping service providers like insurers from helping export Russian oil unless it is sold at an enforced low price, or cap, to deprive Moscow of wartime revenue.
With that mechanism, Western insurers are required to keep proof that Russian oil covered is sold at or below $60. The industry has a 45-day transition period and a 90-day grace period if the G-7 changes the price cap at a later date.
Officials have said Western insurers canceled the insurance and that most international insurers no longer provide coverage for Russian crude.
The Turkish authority said that in the event of an accident involving a vessel in breach of sanctions it was possible the damage would not be covered by an international oil-spill fund.
"(It) is out of the question for us to take the risk that the insurance company will not meet its indemnification responsibility," it said, adding that Türkiye was continuing talks with other countries and insurance companies.
Considering their vital commercial importance as they connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world, the Turkish Straits became a major point of discussion with the eruption of the Russia-Ukraine war on Feb. 24.
The passages are among the world’s most difficult waterways to traverse, as ships must deal with strong currents, sharp turns and varying weather conditions.
The 1936 Montreux Convention guarantees freedom of navigation for merchant vessels passing through Türkiye’s two straits. But it also gives Türkiye the right to regulate security – the provision it is applying to make sure the oil ships are insured against spillage and other accidents.
Millions of barrels of oil per day move south from Russian ports through Türkiye’s Bosporus and Dardanelles into the Mediterranean.
The Bosporus, a 17-mile (27.36-kilometer) waterway that connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea and eventually to the Mediterranean Sea, is one of the world’s most important choke points for the maritime transit of oil. The 40-mile Dardanelles separately connects the Marmara Sea with the Aegean and Mediterranean.