Lloyd's Register of Shipping, an association of shipowners, shipbuilders, ship machinery manufacturers and insurance companies, will revoke the certification of 21 of its ships from Gatik Ship Management (GSM), an Indian company that suddenly became a major carrier of Russian oil after the start of the war in Ukraine. It is reported by Reuters, citing a letter from the association.
The statement said that Lloyd's Register seeks to "promote compliance with sanctions on Russian oil trading." If associations provide evidence, they will withdraw any services deemed by the relevant authorities to violate international sanctions. According to Lloyd's Register, 11 of the declassified Indian GSM ships have also been certified by the Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass). Gatik did not respond to an emailed request for comment from Reuters.
A major US insurer, American Club, also told the agency that it no longer provides insurance coverage for Gatik vessels, and Russian insurer Ingosstrakh (INGSI.MM) said it would not work with Gatik in the future. Neither the insurers nor Lloyd's Register specified why they ended their cooperation with the Indian company.
The lack of transparency and limited oversight of the shipping sector means that many ships carrying cargo from sanctioned countries are finding new flags for their ships and other registration companies or insurers, the agency said.
Thus, India imported 2.76 million tons of Russian oil on ships operated by Gatik during the first four months of 2023, which is 10% of total Russian imports, according to tanker arrivals and Reuters calculations. About 1.36 million tons of Russian oil was due to arrive in India in May and June on tankers linked to Gatik, but these figures were preliminary.
Earlier in May, oil experts and participants told Bloomberg that Russia's attempts to circumvent Western oil sanctions threaten an environmental catastrophe. Now the Russian Federation uses a record number of obsolete tankers to transport its oil around the world, in the event of accidents, collisions or oil spills in the water area, this threatens local ecosystems with serious consequences.
Also, market participants expressed confidence that the new oil majors are closely connected with the Russian Federation and will not last without the Putin regime. A vivid example of this is the "Indian" company Gatik Ship Management (GSM), which in less than a year turned from a small company with two vessels into a market leader with 58 vessels, while it turned out that the company is associated with Rosneft (more on this at the beginning May wrote FT). The new "oil majors" also combine a reluctance to speak to the press and small offices around the world, which usually have only a few employees, and even those infrequently show up on site.