BOUYED by the role that the UK played in supporting the US seizure of shadow fleet tanker Marinera (IMO: 9230880) last week, UK defence officials have been talking up the possibility of more imminent action against stateless shadow fleet* vessels.

Defence officials have been briefing journalists that the UK is ready to step up action against the shadow fleet and separately told the BBC on Monday that a legal basis had been identified to allow the UK military to board and detain vessels.

While Lloyd’s List understands that the legal advice to the UK government has not changed, defence officials have been hurriedly reviewing plans to potentially interdict more tankers without valid flag registrations.

According to Lloyd’s List analysis there were 23 vessels either passing through or about to enter the Baltic and English Channel on Monday.

International Maritime Organization data indicates there are currently at least 466 vessels globally known to be using fraudulent or invalid flag registrations.

The ramped-up rhetoric from the UK comes as EU officials are discussing their next package of sanctions which Lloyd’s List understands will include tightened restrictions targeting shadow fleet vessels passing through EU waters in addition to a lowered oil price cap.

While several EU states have been pushing for a more aggressive stance towards interdicting stateless tankers moving through EU waters, to date states have avoided vessel boardings outside of a handful of specific cases where tight legal justification was sought in advance.

Technically the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea allows boarding of stateless vessels. However, political concerns regarding Russian reprisals in the Baltic have allowed a steady of flow of tankers with no official certification to sail unchecked beyond requests to provide known fake certificates.

The 20th package of EU sanctions targeting Russia is scheduled to be unveiled later this month. It is not yet clear whether more robust measures on stateless tankers proposed by Poland will be included.

The UK, however, appears to be taking a more aggressive stance.

“The UK will not stand by as malign activity increases on the high seas... and alongside our allies, we are stepping up our response against shadow vessels — and we will continue to do so,” UK Defence Secretary John Healey told Parliament last week in the wake of the Marinera seizure.

That seizure of a ship that had switched to the Russian flag having previously been fraudulently flying the Guyana flag, has since been lauded by the UK government as a strong example of UK preparedness to board and seize stateless tankers.

On Monday, the BBC was told by defence officials that the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act from 2018 could be used to approve the use of military force against stateless tankers.

According to the BBC report there are plans for the armed forces to use these powers, in what is being described inside government as a ramping up of action against the ships.

The use of the 2018 money laundering Act, however, has long been part of the unchanged legal advice from Royal Navy lawyers to the government.

Together with the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea 110 (1) (d), and the existing Russian sanctions legislation from 2019, section 89, SAMLA 2018 has always been an option for the UK government to pursue — a fact the Ministry of Defence has long been aware of.

The renewed push on more bullish threats regarding UK’s readiness to take action against the regular flow of stateless vessels moving through its waters, therefore, suggests more of a political justification of imminent action.

A UK government spokesperson told Lloyd’s List on Monday that the ministry of defence would not be commenting on specific operational planning. However, they added that the defence minister had been clear “that deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government”.

In the wake of the Marinera seizure with UK support, the flow of fraudulently flagged vessels passing through the English Channel and Baltic Sea has not slowed.

Convoy movements

However, several of the tankers with valid flags have now started to move in convoy.

One group of six tankers that had loaded in the Russian port of Ust-Luga were on Monday sailing as a pack as they headed to exit the Baltic Sea while being tracked and monitored by multiple EU coast guards, naval vessels and aerial assets.

Another fraudulently flagged tanker with multiple fake digital identities, Tavian (IMO: 1095337), performed an unexplained U-turn off the Danish coast on Sunday and has since proceeded at full speed out of the Danish Straits, back into the North Sea without loading.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Sunday that the number of insurance checks for shadow fleet vessels was being increased, with more than 600 ships stopped while sailing close to the British Isles.

The UK Department for Transport did not respond to Lloyd’s List’s request for details on how many of those checks had revealed fraudulent registration or invalid insurance.