Brussels has sanctioned a Dubai company that runs two crude tankers trading to Russia, and left the tankers free to trade. The EU listed DIS Logistics DMCC on 15 October; Equasis records it as commercial manager of the Ursus Maritimus and the Ursus Arctos, former BP tankers that have called repeatedly at Taman, near the Kerch Strait. Neither ship is on the EU list. Their technical manager, Cougar Nautic, now says DIS Logistics’ involvement ended in April, six months before the listing; Equasis records dated 19 October still show it in place.
Not the first time
It is the second time this year. In June the EU listed Trans KA of Istanbul as operator of three named tankers but listed none of the ships. Within nine days all four of its tankers had passed to an unlisted company at the same address, been re-insured and re-certified by Western firms, and kept trading. The Council has since dropped one of its grounds, that the ships lacked adequate insurance, after the UK P&I Club confirmed one of them was entered with it on the day of the listing. The rest of the case stands on the charge of manipulating tracking signals.
Why is this happening? A company listing bars EU firms from dealing with the company; it does not follow the ship. A vessel listing does, and shuts the ship out of EU ports whoever runs it. The European External Action Service says listings of shadow fleet enablers can be adopted independently of vessel bans, and has declined to discuss individual cases, citing confidentiality and the unanimity rule. There may be reasons in the evidence: a vessel listing needs a case against the ship, and every name needs the assent of all 27 capitals. Whatever the legal logic, the outcome is odd. The sanction lands on a company that can be swapped out within days, while the ship that carries the oil sails on. For compliance teams, a manager’s listing is a reason to check where its ships went next, not proof that they have left the trade.
On the other hand
Washington, meanwhile, is looking for ships it can take off its sanctions list. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on 19 October the US would move tankers from the “bad-guy fleet” to the “good-guy fleet”. The Maritime Watch Mariel database finds about 20 supertankers that pass the tests, 17 of them listed over Iranian oil. Russian tonnage barely features: of the 205 tankers Washington has listed under its Russia programmes, only seven are not also on another country’s list, so a buyer of any of the others would still face European restrictions.
On film
Our new short film, Death on the Black Sea, released on 16 October, traces the attacks on merchant shipping from the strikes off Bulgaria to Ukraine’s campaign against Russian-linked tankers, using Mariel’s record of each ship.
There is much more on maritimewatch.eu, and in our archive of more than five thousand articles, including:
the tanker manager and Equasis at odds over the sanctioned Dubai firm;
Brussels’ response as the shipping war reached Bulgaria;
MEPs’ push to take shipping out of the EU carbon market once the IMO deal takes effect;
shipowners’ warning that the clean-fuel reserve covers a third of what is needed;
and whether the EU will target Turkish and Indian yards that handle sanctioned ships.
Free trials on request: editor@maritimewatch.eu