The Cook Islands in the Pacific are one of the fastest-growing shipping registers in the world. This is mainly due to tankers fleeing Western sanctions.
However, the Pacific state has no intention of becoming a safe haven for the “shadow fleet”. Twelve tankers on the blacklist were recently removed from the register.
90% of the ship register are tankers
According to Lloyd’s List, there are currently 320 ships registered in the Cook Islands – over two-thirds of which are tankers, which in turn account for more than 90% of the tonnage. Since the beginning of the war against Ukraine and the associated sanctions imposed by the West on trade in Russian oil, the islands have become a magnet for old tankers. So far this year alone, 50 Russian tankers over 20,000 dwt older than 15 years have been flagged in the Cook Islands.
All but a handful of the tankers flying the Cook Islands flag are linked to the Iranian and Russian oil trade.
For example, 26 of these tankers were most recently managed by Radiating World Shipping Services and Star Voyages Shipping Services, both based in Dubai. They were sanctioned for their violations of the G7 oil price cap, whereupon the owners transferred all the tankers to newly founded companies. The flag remained that of the Cook Islands.
A similar development can currently be observed with the flags of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau and the Comoros.
Cook Islands defend themselves against shadow fleet
However, the Cook Islands do not intend to become a permanent port of call for the shadow fleet. “Any vessel, manager or owner that is on the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list, the UK sanctions list or the new EU sanctions list will be removed from the register immediately,” emphasised Tony Manarangi, Executive Director of Maritime Cook Islands, in an interview with Lloyd’s List.
Between May and July, twelve ships associated with the sanctioned oil trade were removed. The 26 tankers mentioned above, insured by the Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh, had to find a new insurer within seven days, according to the Cook Islands shipping registry, otherwise their license could be revoked.
