The government of Comoros has begun a clean-out of its international flag registry which has been central to sanctions-circumventing dark fleet tankers shipping Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil.
There are now 62 tankers, three liquefied petroleum gas carriers and one tug declared as falsely flying the Comoros flag, according to the EU’s Equasis database.
Ships are labeled by the International Maritime Organization as falsely flagged once confirmed by the flag administration that it is not legally registered with that country’s flag.
All but one of the falsely flagged Comoros ships was sanctioned by either the US, EU or UK and engaged in Russia, Iranian or Venezuelan trades as of September 14, Windward data show.
False Flag Networks Aid Sanctions Evasion
Flag governance has emerged as critical for countering the dark fleet of sanctions-circumventing tankers which have exploited lax technical oversight and management at privately run registries.
Comoros, along with Gambia and Sierra Leone, are among the biggest providers of ship registry services to sanctioned tankers, as permissive flags such as Gabon, Barbados, Cook Islands, Panama, and others expel them from their fleets — triggering record levels of flag hopping among dark fleet…