GENEVA-BASED FRACTAL Shipping has emerged as a significant shipper of Russian oil to the United Arab Emirates and China but the owners behind the fleet of 27 tankers it operates cannot be traced.
The company is one of many established in the past 18 months in response to Western sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and is now the second-largest dark fleet operator after Gatik Ship Management, analysis by Lloyd’s List shows.
The company’s fleet comprises one very large crude carrier, three suezmax and ten aframax tankers as well as a further 13 long range one and medium-range vessels, according to a list posted on its website and data found on the Lloyd’s List Intelligence database.
Fractal, as well as Gatik’s fleet of 50-plus tankers, are part of the 453 ships that form the so-called dark fleet * solely deployed in shipping US-sanctioned Iran and Venezuela crude and Russian oil.
The fleet of elderly, anonymously owned tankers now comprise some 10% of the trading tanker fleet, many of which are deploying sanctionscircumventing tactics to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery and the cargo origin and destination.
Fractal Shipping came under the spotlight in Switzerland this week, when a television news crew visited its office in Geneva after failing to contact the company via email and telephone.
Staff answering the door, with a brass plate clearly identifying the office as Fractal Shipping, told the news crew that they had the wrong address.
Fractal Shipping’s website does not provide a phone number and there was no response to inquiries sent to the sole email address listed, which related to crew employment. Fractal Shipping described the company as the commercial manager “of shipping assets within the commodity sector”.
Vessel-tracking shows the tanker fleet shipping oil and product from Russian ports in the Baltic and Black Sea as well as eastern Russia to China and the United Arab Emirates. All are flagged with Panama.
Unlike Gatik, which focuses almost exclusively on India-bound crude shipments, no recent voyages on Fractal vessels have been shipped to the subcontinent, analysis shows.
The Fractal website sits Mathieu Philippe as chief executive. He is a former head of shipping for Socar Trading and former chief operating officer for UACC, according to the website.
Sources told Lloyd’s List that Socar Trading had taken on some Russian cargoes for Türkiye.
Philippe was approached for comment via social media but did not respond.
The chief commercial officer Giuseppe Stura and chief strategy officer Karl Martin Nygaard previously worked at Socar Trading and UACC respectively.
Fractal Shipping, which also has an office in Dubai, appears to provide services exclusively for at least four United Arab Emirates based companies linked to Koban Shipping.
Macario Shipping, Wanta Shipping Limited Liability Company-FZ, Crios Shipping as ISM or technical managers are all connected via Teodor Shipping, Koban Shipping LLC and Hong Kong-based Gerhard Shipping Limited, analysis by Lloyd’s List shows.
The beneficial owners behind all these companies cannot be traced at the addresses provided as they are used for shell companies
Koban Shipping says it is based at 1108 Conrad Tower Sheik Zayed Rd, the same address for another shipping company Marshal Shipping LLC.
Marshal Shipping is linked to a further three dark fleet tankers, Boreas (IMO: 9248497), Rhea (IMO:9237228) and Arzoyi (IMO: 9248473). Its historical fleet list includes a further three tankers that are still trading in the dark fleet.
Koban’s website uses stock photos and other corporate word templates to populate its website.
On January 21, 2021, Roshanlal Shambuhnath Gupta signed a partnership document with the Batumi State Maritime Academy on behalf of Koban
Shipping LLC providing an address that matched the address provided on the Koban Shipping website.
A person of the same name has also been linked to Skanland Shipping Inc, a Panama-incorporated company that was dissolved in March 2019.
All but one of the Fractal Shipping tankers was entered with P&I clubs that are members of the International Group. Western insurers can only provide cover for tankers lifting Russian oil if they are compliant with Western sanctions. This means the shipowner has attested that the cargo was bought at a price below a cap implemented by the Group of Seven industrialised nations and Australia. The cap took effect on December 5 for crude and February 5 for products.
Last month American Club removed coverage from Gatik amid concerns the company’s ships were breaching sanctions, while UK-incorporated St Kitts and Nevis International Flag Registry also removed them from their register.
* 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 by 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 22 May 2023