The vessel, the Sunny Liger, which sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands, comes from the Russian port of Primorsk with a cargo of gas oil. Initially, the cargo was to be unloaded in a Swedish port, but dock workers there announced that they would not do so in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A terminal of the company Evos in the Afrikahaven is now listed as a destination. Evos himself says it is “not clear at the moment” whether the ship will come to their port.
The Ukrainian embassy in the Netherlands warned on Thursday afternoon about the arrival of the Sunny Liger to Rotterdam. The embassy called on the government, port authorities and the harbor workers’ union to ‘do everything necessary to prevent the ship from calling at a Dutch port’. ‘Oil runs through the veins of the Russian economy. Every barrel of oil that brings warmth and comfort to your homes brings the hell of war into ours.’
No legal ground for refusal
MP Pieter Omtzigt and Kati Piri (PvdA) urgently requested clarification from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the support of a majority of the House. They hoped that the ship would be barred. Omtzigt: ‘We will have to stop financing Putin’s war machine. When other EU countries refuse goods from Russia, we should not buy those contaminated goods.’
Shortly before midnight, however, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra announced that there was no legal basis to block the ship. ‘At the moment an attempt is being made to trace the buyer of the ship’s cargo,’ Hoekstra wrote on Thursday evening. ‘The cabinet intends to enter into talks with the buyer of the cargo carried by this ship. Nevertheless, this ship, and this cargo, is not currently subject to EU sanctions against Russia.”
Buyer unknown
On Friday morning, it turned out that the port of Rotterdam was suddenly no longer a destination for the Sunny Liger in the port system. But around eleven o’clock Rotterdam returned to the list. However, there are still uncertainties. For example, because it is still unknown at which terminal the ship can dock, the ship will remain anchored off the Dutch coast for the time being. ‘We are back to square one’, says director Niek Stam of FNV Havens.
He calls it ‘dubious’ that it is not known who the buyer of the gas oil is. He also calls on parties that may benefit from the tanker to donate that money. “This is a perk. The ship was not en route to the Netherlands at all. It wouldn’t be good to make money off the backs of Ukrainians.’
According to Stam, if the ship could dock at one of the terminals that fall under FNV Havens, it will not be easy to refuse to unload the cargo. “Our Swedish colleagues boycotted the ship, and we generally follow the good example of others,” he says. But in the Netherlands a legal basis is needed for such a refusal, and in this case there is none. According to Stam, the cabinet could have banned the ship, because Rotterdam was not the original destination.
Stam, also chairman of ITF Netherlands, the Dutch branch of the International Transport Workers Federation, says he will keep a close eye on the ship with his ITF inspectors and will contact ITF colleagues worldwide.
Time for principles
Piri is disappointed with the government’s response. ‘It is high time for a more principled position from the Dutch government. Ships refused entry in Swedish ports can enter here without any problems. If the cabinet is really in favor of an oil boycott, now is the time to show it.’
The current port ban only affects ships registered under the Russian flag. An exception has also been made for food and fuel products.
Russia has doubled its income from fossil fuel sales since its re-invasion of Ukraine more than two months ago. That reported The Guardian Thursday. Although export volumes have fallen, the country is benefiting from the increased prices. The Netherlands is the fourth largest importer of fossil fuels from Russia, after Germany, Italy and China, according to calculations by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). Crea has calculated that since the start of the war, Russia has received 62 billion euros for the sale of oil, gas and coal, 44 billion of which from EU countries.
–
