Blacklisted shadow tanker baits UK sanctions chiefs with English Channel transit

A sanctioned shadow fleet oil tanker is due to transit the English Channel for the first time just days after the UK pledged to crack down on ships with “dubious” insurance passing its shores.

The UK government added 18 Russia-linked oil tankers to its list of designated vessels last week, taking the total to 43, and said it would challenge shadow fleet ships to provide details of their insurance status while passing through the channel.

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That policy is due to be tested on Monday as the 113,000-dwt Ozanno (built 2008) with 730,000 barrels of Urals crude nears one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, according to Kpler shipping data.

Britain sanctioned it in June under its former name Ocean Amz and it became one of the ships that spent months idling off Russia’s Baltic coast “unable to continue pouring money into Putin’s war chest”, according to the UK’s foreign ministry.

But it has since changed its name to Ozanno and the Barbados-flagged aframax tanker loaded oil at Ust-Luga on 13 October before passing through the Danish straits while signalling for the Mediterranean, according to ship tracking data.

Under the plans announced by the UK’s foreign ministry on Thursday, the UK’s maritime and coastguard agency, working with a security and intelligence body, will challenge shadow fleet vessels over the radio to provide details of insurance status.

Officials said the UK would work with flag states to act if a ship’s insurance status fell short of international requirements.

It was not immediately clear what further steps, if any, the UK could take and the Foreign Office did not say what would happen if a ship failed to respond to the challenge.

Foreign secretary David Lammy said Russia’s shadow fleet was “placing coastlines across Europe and the world in jeopardy”.

But at least seven shadow fleet tankers under British sanctions have navigated the English Channel this month, highlighting the scale of the problem faced by European governments in preventing potentially underinsured vessels passing their coastlines.

Five of the seven were sanctioned on Thursday last week, according to Kpler data.

None of them have cover with the International Group of P&I Clubs, which cover more than 85% of oceangoing tonnage.

Their insurance status was not publicly available and the UK did not specify what it meant by “suspected dubious” insurance.

The seven also included the Cook Islands-flagged 115,341-dwt Sea Fidelity (built 2005), which was sanctioned last week.

The aframax tanker, operated by TK Maritime based in Lagos, Nigeria, has passed through the channel 10 times this year, hauling cargoes from Russia’s Baltic ports to Turkey and India before returning on ballast legs, according to Kpler data.

The Ozanno and Sea Fidelity were among the 25 vessels bought by a UK-based ship finance veteran, John Ormerod, that were ultimately financed by Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, according to an FT report earlier this month.

The Ozanno was sanctioned by the UK at the same time as its operator, Dubai-based One Moon Marine Services. It has been solely engaged in Russian trades since August 2023.