Wednesday, May 2, 2012

$50m insurance boost for Indian ships violating Iran sanctions

C Shivakumar
Chennai:
The $50 million protection and indemnity cover by state-run insurance companies for Indian shipping firms to transport Iranian crude following tightening of Western sanctions is being worked out and the product will be ready by next month, according to G Srinivasan, chairman cum managing director of United India Insurance.

He told Express on Wednesday that General Insurance Company along with United India Insurance and three other Indian insurance companies are chalking out the protection and indemnity cover worth $ 50 million and it will be submitted to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

The new product is being chalked out after tough European Union sanctions against Iran also ban EU insurers and re-insurers from covering tankers carrying Iranian crude anywhere in the world from July. This has hit Indian insurance companies who are finding it difficult to provide the cover in the absence of willing insurers from Europe.

P K Mahapatra, deputy general manager of United India Insurance Company said a majority of world’s tanker insurance is based in the West and the biggest re-insurers are located in Europe. Globally such third-party risks are insured with the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs (IG Clubs) based in London that provides cover for oil pollution and wreck removal for oil tankers.

“Re-insurance, the practice of insurers transferring portions of risk portfolios to other parties by some form of agreement in order to reduce the likelihood of having to pay a large obligation resulting from an insurance claim, is done on an international basis and with foreign companies shying away from providing cover, Indian insurance companies are finding it difficult to provide cover,” he said.

Interestingly, India is the world’s fourth-largest oil importer and one of the biggest customers for Iran’s 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil exports.

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