Politicians at the European Parliament are likely to vote today in favour of a series of measures taking aim at Russia’s shadow fleet.
The package of measures follow on from the UK’s decision last month to start cracking down on tankers passing through the English Channel.
The European measures call for more targeted sanctions on the shadow fleet, such as designating all individual shadow fleet vessels, as well as their owners, operators, managers, accounts, banks, insurance companies. The measures also call for an immediate ban on the use of Western vessels in the transport of Russian oil while also sanctioning vessels sailing through EU waters without known insurance in order to protect the continent’s waters and avoid the financial burdens of oil spill clean-ups.
European bureaucrats will also be called on to reach out to the governments of the countries where the companies managing the shadow tankers are registered and of the countries whose flag presence has increased substantially in EU waters since the imposition of the oil price cap. The draft text of the new ship sanctions urges flag states to delist sanctioned vessels from their ship registries, something the US has been doing a great deal of late via the Office of of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Last month, the UK’s Department for Transport began working alongside the Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to challenge shadow fleet vessels with what the UK government described as “suspected dubious insurance” to provide details of their insurance status as they pass through the English Channel. Failure to provide approved insurance could result in ships being detained.
The European Parliament will today encourage EU member states to cooperate closely with the UK on measures to restrict the use of the English Channel by Russian shadow fleet vessels while also calling for countries with international straits to require ships to demonstrate proof of protection and indemnity insurance and their adherence to minimum safety standards.
The Danish government has been in discussions with neighbours for months looking at ways of barring some of Russia’s shadow fleet from transiting the Baltic Sea, something that gained added importance following a collision involving a laden Russian shadow tanker earlier this year.
Russia sends about a third of its seaborne oil exports through the Danish straits with around one in three of these ships having unknown insurance.
Other measures in the European package include getting EU member states to enhance drone and satellite monitoring to identify shadow fleet vessels in EU waters and monitor activities, such as ship-to-ship transfers, something politicians are keen to see banned.
The European Parliament is also calling on G7 countries to more effectively enforce the price cap imposed on Russian seaborne oil, to substantially decrease the oil price cap and to crack down on the loopholes used by Russia to repackage and sell its oil and oil products at market prices.
At the European Political Community Summit in July, Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, announced what was described as a shadow fleet call to action, something the US and Canada joined last month.
The call to action urges all member states of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to prevent illegal operations in the maritime sector by the shadow fleet.
Signatories to the movement have called on flag states to ensure that ships flying their flag adhere to highest possible safety and pollution prevention requirements and best practices while port states are asked to ensure the enforcement of the safety and liability conventions on these ships, including those that relate to ship-to-ship transfer operations and the requirement to have on board valid state certificates of insurance.
Signatories have agreed to share information on the practices and operations of the shadow fleet, to coordinate responses to the risks posed by its ships and facilitators, and to work with the private sector and other maritime stakeholders to address the threat.
In related news, the directorate general of shipping in India, a top buyer of Russian oil, has recently put in place new guidelines to ensure all ships calling at the world’s most populous nation have the correct protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance certificates in place.
