How US tanker seizures may sound death knell for the shadow fleet

Gonzalo Saiz Erausquin, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the UK and other European countries had taken “numerous actions” against the shadow fleet, focusing on regulatory challenges such as requesting proof of insurance. “There’s been heavy engagement with flag states to get them to deregister sanctioned tankers and clean up their registries,” he said. “But rarely have we seen these type of detentions... Europe has traditionally shied away from this type of interception because they’re highly contentious...The US has pierced this veil of uncertainty regarding whether these actions could be lawful. And the drive that the US has been really showing in boarding these vessels, intercepting them, proceeding with the seizures might create a precedent for greater action against the shadow fleet... Estonia had attempted to seize a vessel on the same grounds the US employed to take the Marinera, he said — that these vessels are using false or illegitimate flags and are therefore stateless. “But once the Bella 1 switched flag to Russia, I think we were all holding our breath to see whether the US would continue and go ahead with the detention. And they did.”