Dubai based ship recycling cash buyer Best Oasis has secured authorisation from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to negotiate deals involving sanctioned vessels, becoming the second company after GMS to receive such approval. The development opens another route for removing ageing ships from the sanctioned fleet, which has expanded rapidly as western governments targeted vessels transporting Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan oil.
Best Oasis, headed by Gaurav Mehta and established in 2010 as an expansion of India’s Priya Blue ship recycling business, is one of the world’s largest cash buyers of end of life ships. The authorisation allows it to pursue negotiations, although individual transactions involving blocked vessels would still require OFAC clearance before completion.
The move follows landmark approvals granted to rival GMS earlier this year. In May, Washington authorised GMS to acquire four sanctioned containerships linked to Iranian shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani for recycling, and in August GMS secured approval to recycle two seized tankers, Marinera and Galileo, taken into US custody during the crackdown on Venezuelan oil shipments. Sanctioned vessels now account for an increasingly substantial share of the demolition market.