GATIK SHIP MANAGEMENT, the world’s largest dark fleet * operator, has reflagged four tankers to Mongolia and restructured some of its fleet’s technical management and registered ownership amid increased interest over who is financing the ships connected to the anonymous shipowner.
Four of the 38 Gatik tankers that were deflagged by St Kitts and Nevis in April for breaching Western sanctions on Russia are now showing as flagged with Mongolia, according to the Lloyd’s List Intelligence database.
A fifth tanker that had no discernible links with Gatik but was registered by St Kitts and Nevis upon entering new ownership in March, also reflagged to Mongolia earlier this month.
The tankers to reflag are 2006-built suezmax Mercury (IMO: 9321706), 2007-built aframax tanker Artemis (IMO: 9317949), and medium-range tankers Horai (IMO: 9290517) and Hana (IMO: 9353113), built in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
The fifth tanker was 2006-built MR tanker Leonidas I (IMO: 9294123).
The shift to Mongolia further adds to concerns about the lack of technical and safety oversight for the fleet of elderly tankers solely deployed in shipping Russian crude to circumvent sanctions imposed by Western governments on the federation’s oil and shipping sectors.
Other Gatik tankers have reflagged to Gabon, which now has 23 ships from the anonymous shipowner in its registry, managed by United Arab Emiratesbased Intershipping Services.
Intershipping Services has not replied to three emails and four phone calls over the past four weeks seeking comment about the additions to its registry.
The Mongolia flag registry is managed by a Singapore-based company Mongolia Ship Registry Pte Ltd, incorporated in 2002. Its website is showing as undergoing maintenance, with no contact details provided.
The five recently added tankers represent 30% of the total registry by deadweight, even though there are 623 vessels with an average age of 32 years flagged with Mongolia.
That extraordinary figure not only underscores the registry’s inexperience in larger ships, but the desire of Gatik to embrace regulatory obscurity when it comes to its fleet management given high-profile coverage about its operations.
Landlocked Mongolia, along with Sierra Leone and Togo, are the only three flags on the most recent Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control blacklist.
About three quarters of its fleet trade in the AsiaPacific region are dominated by tugs, fishing trawlers, small coastal general cargoships, with about 10% of these unspecified vessels too small to require vessel-tracking transponders.
Shareholders in the Mongolia Ship Registry include the Mongolia Maritime Administration, which holds 65%, Mongolia’s Capital City Property Operation and Management Department (5%) and Singapore citizen Foong Kah Keong (30%), Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority documents show.
Along with another Singapore citizen Foong Kuan Chung, Foong Kah Keong is one of six directors, and both share the same address at a house in suburban Singapore.
The other four are Mongolian citizens.
Shopping malls
The same non-operating website applies to Gatik Ship Management, which has been “under maintenance” for the past nine months.
Gatik, which also operates via Buena Vista Shipping in India, built up a fleet of 50 tankers worth $1.5bn from scratch over 18 months, many without mortgages, prompting speculation about its backers and financing source.
Addresses for companies associated with Gatik provided in both India and UAE have been traced to derelict rooms at shopping malls or business offices designed for brass plate companies.
Gatik’s tankers are mostly deployed in shipping Russian crude and refined products to destinations including western Africa, South American and India, now the largest buyer of Russian oil.
They form part of a dark fleet of some 450-plus vessels, representing about 10% of the internationally trading fleet that are exclusively used for shipping US-sanctioned Iran and Venezuelan oil, or Russian oil. About 160 of these tankers are currently tracked shipping Russian oil.
Gatik tankers are connected via a series of technical managers in both the UAE and India including Galena Ship Management in Badlapur, Gaurik Ship Management in Maharashtra and Zidan Ship Management in Madhya Pradesh. Some, but not all, have LTA Shipping FZCO in the United Arab Emirates as third-party operators.
The latest company connected with the Gatik fleet is Caishan Ship Management, which gives an address in Maharashtra. Mongolia-flagged Horai is one tanker to move its ISM management to Caishan from Gatik Ship Management earlier this month.
So did Heracles (IMO: 9271585) when it reflagged to Gabon in late April, and Naxos (IMO: 9336426) when it reflagged to Panama from St Kitts and Nevis several weeks ago.
The ISM management for Leonidas I is listed as ARK SeaKonnect Shipmanagment in Mumbai, India. That company also manages another tanker, still flagged with St Kitts and Nevis, Pericles (IMO: 9272931).
The invoicing address for Leonidis I is Arc SeaKonnect Ship Mangement LLP in Dubai, according to records for the India Registry, which provides classification services for the vessel.
As well as selecting flag registries that will not ask too many questions, and untraceable management companies, dark fleet owners have also been noted to select classification services that also obscure ownership and avoid safety scrutiny.
The management of the recognised organisation Lloyd’s List | Daily Briefing Wednesday 24th May Page 3 which provided services to Gabon-flagged tanker Pablo (IMO: 9133587), that exploded off international waters on March 31 with three crew killed, could not be traced.
A Lloyd’s List investigation found Singaporeincorporated Foresight Ship Classification used an anonymous British Virgins Islands company to obfuscate discovery about its management.
* 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 governmentcontrolled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.
Lloyd's List Daily Briefing 24 April 2023