GABON-FLAGGED AFRAMAX Pablo (IMO: 9133587) changed flag six days before a fatal explosion in international waters off southeast Malaysia on May 1, after being cancelled by four other registries over two years for its links to shipping Iranian oil.
The tanker also switched recognised organisation, name, and registered ownership earlier in March, as it prepared to reflag in Gabon, after being removed from Cameroon, Cook Islands and Tanzania flags from 2020 through to 2022.
The tanker’s current classification society, Foresight Ship Classificationvis based in Singapore with apparent links to China, according to documents seen by Lloyd’s List.
Gabon provisionally flagged the tanker from March 24 for six months, from the Tanzania registry. Foresight Ship Classification is only approved to class tankers in Mongolia and Sierra Leone, according to the International Maritime Organization’s GSIS records.
The registration switches were one of numerous red flags that should have alerted any regulator or marine service provider that the Gabonflagged aframax tanker was a risk requiring investigation.
United Against Nuclear Iran had provided prior governments and registries with evidence that Pablo, formerly named Adisa, Mockingbird and Helios, was manipulating its vessel-tracking transponder and taking on Iranian oil cargoes, resulting in their removal.
Three of the 28 crew remain missing after a probable tank explosion on the 1997-built tanker, one of the 455 tankers identified by Lloyd’s List as part of the dark fleet* shipping Iranian, Russian or Venezuela oil. The remainder were rescued by nearby ships, according to reports.
The vessel was listed by United Against Nuclear Iran for its links to shipping Iranian oil in 2020, with the ship last seen in areas where Iranian cargoes are loaded in the Middle East Gulf and off Fujairah, in March 2022.
The insurer and beneficial owner remain unknown. The registered owner is a single-ship, special purpose company incorporated in the Marshall Islands on March 13, Pablo Union Shipping Inc. The previous owner, from July 2021 to March 12, Ion 1 Maritime Incorporated, was also incorporated in the Marshall Islands.
Marshall Islands is listed as the company of incorporation for registered ownership for 36% of the dark fleet measured by deadweight but only 3% of those flagged, according to data compiled by Lloyd’s List.
The US-incorporated International Registries Inc, which provides services on behalf of Marshall Islands said that the company or registered owner was “reflective of the entity who has assumed the responsibility for operation of the ship, which may not be the beneficial owner of the vessel”.
“The RMI (republic of Marshall Islands) Maritime Administrator maintains beneficial ownership information, in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) definition, on all RMI registered vessels. Per international standards, the same beneficial ownership information of an RMI entity is required to be maintained by the entity and made available upon demand of the RMI Registered Agent.”
Port state control inspection records from August 2022 had the technical manager as Minako Marine Services LLC in the United Arab Emirates. A number provided to authorities was tracked to a WhatsApp owner with a cartoon photo of a young woman kissing a puppy. The number did not answer.
A number of surveys were due and set to expire in October 2022 according to port state control records from Malaysia, that were contained under the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding inspections website.
Intershipping Services, the Amjan, United Arab Emirates-based registry that acts on behalf of Gabon’s maritime authority said that the tanker was classed and had insurance.
The company has declined to name the insurer, classification society or recognised organisation, with an unidentified spokesperson telling Lloyd’s List “all the paperwork is in place”.
“We are a responsible flag administration,” he said. “We make sure that all necessary paperworks are in effect before flagging a vessel.”
“Nobody wants this sort of accident,” he added. Gabon has sent a surveyor to the vessel, according to the registry.
Like many privately run registries, the flag includes clauses in its contracts that the vessel will adhere to all relevant sanctions, although even the largest flags lack the resources to provide 24-hour monitoring.
The tanker spent two months at a Chinese shipyard shortly after delivering its last cargo on January 29, and while it was without any known flag, vessel tracking shows. Tanzania
The tanker’s first signal after spending about three months at the Changhong International shipyard was seen near Taiwan on April 23, vessel tracking shows, with its draft suggesting it was in ballast. It then headed to southeast Malaysia anchorages, well known as an area where dark fleet tankers congregate for ship-to-ship transfers of USsanctioned oil.
*Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.
Lloyd's List Daily Briefing 03 May 2023