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Lloyd’s Register has removed the certification of 21 vessels operated by Indian shipping company Gatik Ship Management, which is one of the biggest shippers of Russian oil abroad.
“Lloyd’s Register is committed to facilitating compliance with sanctions regulations on the trading of Russian oil,” Lloyd’s Register told Reuters, which reported the news exclusively.
“Where supported by evidence, we withdraw class and services from any vessels found by the relevant authorities to be breaching international sanctions.”
The move by the maritime major follows a similar punitive step by the American Club, which stripped Gatik Ship Management of its protection and indemnity insurance cover last month for selling Russian oil above the G7 price cap of $60.
The EU and G7 on December 5 last year banned maritime transportation services, including insurance and funding, from shipping Russia’s crude oil to third countries if the oil is bought above the price cap of $60 per barrel.
Since then, most media coverage of the cap has been along positive lines, with G7 officials insisting that it is working. There have, however, been also reports of sales of Russian crude above the cap.
Gatik Ship Management is heavily involved in moving Russian crude, with each of the 48 tankers identified as managed by the firm found to have transported crude or refined products from Russia at least once so far this year, according to a database maintained by shipping information system Equasis and data analytics firm Vortexa, cited by Bloomberg in April. Of all tankers managed by Gatik Ship Management, the American Club is listed as the insurer of 34 of them.
Like P&I insurance, classification by Lloyd’s Register or another certification company is important for ships to get insurance cover and enter ports. However, Lloyd’s Register has acknowledged there are also classification providers in India, too: 11 of Gatik’s vessels have certification from the Indian Register of Shipping.
