Lloyd's List

A FURTHER FIVE anonymously owned, elderly tankers including four connected to Gatik Ship Management — a major shipper of Russian oil to India — have joined Unic Tanker Ship Management Co Ltd, a highprofile Turkish shipmanager. This brings the tally of dark fleet* tankers joining Unic to nine over the past eight months, all deployed in Russian trades. The four tankers from Gatik or companies linked to Gatik were aframaxes Attica (IMO: 9436941), and Odysseus (IMO: 9332810), long range 1 product tanker Agnes (IMO: 9314167), and Voula (IMO: 9290828)...

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S Emission Trading System will be extended to include the shipping sector in less than two months. But with the roll-out of legislation fast approaching, concerns have been raised over industry readiness. These views were shared by Friederike Hesse, co-founder and managing director of Berlin-based startup Zero44, which offers software to guide industry participants on carbon regulations compliance, including the ETS. Speaking at Capital Link’s German Maritime Forum in Hamburg on...

WITH UNPRECEDENTED DROUGHT conditions expected to restrict Panama Canal transits far into 2024, shipowners are starting to consider rerouting fixed-day schedule services from Asia via the Suez Canal as executives brace for long-term disruption. There is growing disquiet among regular canal users that, even if the current weather conditions reverse the recently announced restrictions imposed by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), longterm investment in the canal still hangs in the balance and uncertainty is driving many to strategically review their reliance on the waterway...

THE NUMBER OF anonymously owned, elderly tankers from the dark fleet loading oil from Russia has surpassed Greece-linked vessels for a second consecutive month, as higher oil prices continue to recalibrate market responses to Western sanctions. Those tankers defined as being part of the dark fleet * comprised 39% of vessels that called at five key Russian Baltic and Black Sea ports during October, when measured by deadweight, Lloyd’s List analysis shows. Of those ships not classed as dark fleet,...

DESPITE THE APPARENT dismantling of Gatik Ship Management, all available public domain evidence points to the Mumbai-based operators remaining number one on the list of top 10 dark fleet operators in Russia. The 50-plus vintage tankers moved to nine different shipmanagers in the past eight months, demonstrating how nimble the business model used by anonymous shipowners in Russian oil trades can be to avoid beneficial ownership discovery. The changes were in response to intensifying public scrutiny of Gatik, its commercial operator Buena Vista Shipping LLP, and mystery backers...