This move was believed to be primarily as a result of the action taken by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (FAC) to add the company and six tankers to the Venezuelan sanctions list.
In April, PB Tankers said it was “shocked and concerned” by FAC’s action, saying that it had “been taking regular advice from both its UK and US lawyers and all possible steps to ensure compliance with current US sanctions including, but not limited to, restriction of trade under a single time charter contract which predates the current sanctions regime.”
The Pietro Barbaro group company reportedly chose the ‘article 161 comma 6’ procedure and has 120 days starting from mid-June to prepare and present a financial restructuring plan, which will be examined by the Court. If approved, the procedure will then fall under article 182 in Italy’s bankruptcy law.