Denmark steps up pressure on dark fleet tankers
Danish Maritime Authority said older ships posed an increased risk to the safety of seafarers and the environment
The Baltic country will begin carrying out port state control inspections of vessels that anchor within its waters off Skagen
DENMARK will begin carrying out port state control inspections of tankers that anchor at Skagen, off its northernmost coast.
The Danish Maritime Authority said the effort was being made “in response to the activity of older ships transporting oil through the Danish straits, which poses an increased risk and concern for safety at sea, seafarers and the environment”.
It will conduct inspections that “cannot be considered in innocent passage” and that anchor at Skagen.
The authority said it is targeting tankers as the consequences of a sinking would be greater than that of other vessel types.
While the statement from the authority makes no mention of dark or shadow fleet tankers, the specific mention of older vessels aligns with Lloyd’s List’s definition of a dark fleet* tanker, which includes vessels aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or having 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.
Previously, Denmark had only conducted port state control inspections for such vessels that called at port, but in the wake of several incidents of cable cutting in the Baltic Sea, the maritime authority is stepping up its efforts.
The 1857 Treaty of Copenhagen, along with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, stipulates that all vessels in the region have a right to innocent passage.
While those pieces of legislation still stand, the increased pressure applied by Denmark mirrors the UK strategy of challenging the insurance details of tankers that transit the English Channel.
* 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 in 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.
