General

Based on the letter dated 16.11.2022 and numbered E-19463099-199-779495 received from the
General Directorate of Maritime Affairs, as it is known, shipowners take out Protection and Indemnity
(P&I) insurance in order to cover the damages that may be caused to third parties, the environment or
the cargo during the operations of their ships, along with the related penalties and responsibilities in
such cases. P&I insurance is a necessity for ships of some types and tonnage in accordance with
international conventions, and ships of certain types and tonnages that will call on our country’s
maritime sovereignty areas are required to have a valid P&I insurance according to our national
legislation provisions. As a matter of fact, the 13th article of the Turkish Straits Maritime Traffic
Regulation Implementation Directive also governs the provision that all vessels carrying dangerous
goods to pass through the Straits, vessels of 300 GT and above and towing vessels shall have a valid
P&I letter of exchange.
With the regulation numbered 2022/879, titled “Restrictions Against Russia’s Destabilizing Actions in
Ukraine” published by the Council of the European Union on 3 June 2022 which amending the Council
Regulation 2014/833, many prohibition/restriction provisions have been introduced to be
implemented in phases. These prohibitions include prohibitive provisions regarding the transportation
of Russian crude oil and petroleum products both to the EU and to third countries. In this respect Crude
oil and petroleum products of Russian origin or exported from Russia, listed in the annex of the
regulation (ANNEX XXV) are prohibited for providing technical assistance, brokerage services, financing
or financial assistance, insurance and reinsurance services, directly or indirectly, in transporting them
to third countries, including ship-to-ship; after 5 December 2022 and are prohibited for for crude oil
shipments and after 5 February 2023 for petroleum products. And in case of violation of the
prohibitions, the P&I insurance policies created for the relevant ships will be deemed invalid.
Regarding the subject, when we look at the statements made by many P&I insurance companies
recently; in the event that an illegal commercial act has been made or prohibitions have been violated
prior to a liability giving rise to a loss, or in other cases such as these, it is stated that the damages will
not be covered even if the ship has a valid P&I policy. As a matter of fact, it is known that these rules
are generally printed texts in insurance rules and policies, but these warning statements are additional
measures that remind ship owners about current developments.
When the subject is evaluated specific to our country in terms of a ship that will enter our maritime
sovereignty areas; in maritime trade, which is a very dynamic sector, where more than 100 thousand
ships are players and most of them take place on an international scale, it does not seem possible to follow whether a ship has performed a prohibited or illegal action before it comes to our country’s
maritime sovereignty. On the other hand, it is necessary to confirm that the P&I insurances are still
valid and inclusionary during the passage of cargo ships, especially crude oil products, which are likely
to have catastrophic consequences for our country, values and people in the event of a possible
accident, through the Turkish Straits. Otherwise, after a possible accident, in case the P&I insurance
company cannot be found or the insurance company rejects the work and actions required for the
above-mentioned reasons, or the processes regarding all these take time and the necessary
interventions are delayed; first of all, our country, our values and our people may suffer to a vital
extent. And if our Straits, which is an important waterway, remain closed during this process; the
supply chain and logistics mobility will come to a halt and a global crisis may occur. For this reason, it
was considered that it would be the most cost-effective and reasonable solution to receive an
additional confirmation letter regarding that the ship would still be covered by the valid P&I insurance
during this navigation. In this respect, I kindly submitted for necessary action about
Receiving a letter from P&I insurance companies of ships carrying crude oil that will pass through the
Turkish Straits after 01/12/2022, stating the ship’s details, cargo and voyage and stating that the P&I
insurance will be valid and inclusive for this ship, voyage and cargo, adding this letter to the Sailing
Plan-1 (SP-1) report to be submitted by the ship by these insurance companies or their representatives,
and sending to the istcan.gth@kiyiemniyeti.gov.tr e-mail adress, coordination of the works and
transactions related to the subject by the shipping agencies as early as possible in order to prevent
possible loss of time and not to delay the passage of the ship.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any querry about the new pollution
implementations.