Ships are changing their flag registry much more often than they used to. Much of this is because the older ships are gravitating to the ‘dark’ or ‘shadow’ fleet, which specializes in avoiding sanctions.
Many of these newly popular flag states have few regulations and little power to provide oversight on the registered ships. That’s what some ship operators want.
In addition, changing flags frequently circumvents enforcement by anyone. The law of the sea is that each ship is nominally required to enforce the laws of its flag state. But some of the flag states have no relevant laws, or very weak ones, and provide no means of enforcement. And jumping flags means that even if some enforcement is tried, it will likely not apply to the vessel by the time the complaint is heard.
African states are frequent choices of shipowners who choose to use alternate flagging. Aside from Liberia, a major flag state, which has a robust governance, many African states use flagging as a revenue source with no actions required. This threatens safety, environmental disaster, and seafarer welfare. The chart below from Clarkson’s, obtained from the article linked below, shows how changes in African registry have ramped up.
The flag-jumping is connected to the fracture in the shipping world between those operators aligned with the EU, US and the West, and those aligned with Russia, to some extent China, and other sanctioned states such as Iran. It’s likely to continue as long as the fracture intensifies.
Management of shipping, safety on board and in port, and welfare of seafarers, is taking a back seat in the meantime.
We now have two worlds of international commerce, as a result of trade wars and the Ukraine-Russia conflict. As the Western world, principally the EU, UK and related countries and the US look to tighten sanctions on Russian oil exports, some shipowners are finding creative ways to get around the rules set by the West.
One important escape hatch is to flag ships with a Flag State that doesn’t enforce any of the sanctions. While this strategy may not get access to US or EU ports, it allows substandard ships, or those that don’t want to obey rules such as those banning ship-to-ship transfers without proper environmental and safety provisions, to trade with other countries.
Two stories caught my eye this week.
The first article notes that the Cook Islands nation has become a top 30 Flag State, due to the registry of ships that trade Russian, Iranian, or Venezuelan oil, all sanctioned by the Western Powers. Cook Islands is located in Polynesia, and is self-governing, but has an external defense relation with New Zealand. It consists of 15 islands, with a total area of 91 square miles. It has an Exclusive Economic Zone surrounding it, of some 770 thousand square miles. Many of its residents also have New Zealand citizenship. The population is about 15000 as of the 2021 Census. (All figures from Wikipedia, retrieved on July 29, 2024.)
Apparently tankers are the primary ships flagged there; the Russian oil trade needs ships that will carry Russian oil sold at prices exceeding the $60 per barrel cap set by the Western sanctions. Often these are substandard tankers, and since they cannot land at Western ports they may not meet safety, environmental, or ship management standards. A Flag State like Cook Islands will not be in a position to enforce any of the international standards for safe operation.
The article also points out that LNG is also starting to be traded via a shadow gas carrier fleet, largely based in Dubai. Those ships will likely also be registered in Flag States that are unable to enforce international standards.
The second article shows why the shadow fleet is arising. India’s imports of Russian crude oil are skyrocketing to 1.8 million barrels per day compared to just 88,000 bpd in 2022. Part of the reason is logistical constraints, another important part is price. India can buy sanctioned oil at the reduced sanction price from Russia. But they can also buy other Russian oil, possibly at even lower prices, using the shadow trade.
Russian ports are not located where they can conveniently trade with India. But in the dark market, oil can be swapped and traded without incurring sanction restrictions, and more favorable transport obtained. Some movement did occur from the Black Sea through the Suez Canal, but that is now limited because of the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Ships now need to move around the Cape of Good Hope to reach India, adding many miles and days to the voyage. It’s more profitable for a dark fleet tanker, but adds to the full cost of the oil delivered in India.
The article talks about the dangers of using the dark fleet for moving oil. We can expect more oil spills and accidents due to the substandard condition of the ships and the failure of masters to follow international rules.
It’s no secret that flag states are a weak point in maritime standards and regulations enforcement. Shipowners can easily circumvent rules by reflagging to a state that is more interested in the revenue from fees than in enforcement. And there are lots of them.
This article paints a darker picture than we have heard of– outright bribery of flag states. The motivation is to skirt sanctions of Russian entities and other a few other countries such as Iran.
According to the article, the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU) has released details of how states are trying to allow their ships to avoid detentions for violation of sanctions. One mechanism was to make bilateral agreements with port states.
I don’t quite see how the bribery angle works, though.
But with dark trade increasing, there’s no question that it would be worthwhile for shipowners to bribe flag states to register old and poorly maintained tankers. And most of those would find their way into the petroleum trade to Asia from Russia.
Dark fleet vessels engage in tactics like dangerous ship-to-ship transfers and AIS masking, which can allow oil to move without being affected by the sanction rules.
I hope the maritime authorities, such as the IMO and P&I clubs, will come up with improved procedures to stop unsafe practices.
Supply Chain and Logistics 