Norway has put new hurdles on uninsured and underinsured oil tankers passing through its waters, the government announced in August. Under the new rules, which are mostly aimed at a “shadow fleet” of ships transporting Russian crude oil, the Norwegian Coastal Administration will approach foreign-registered oil tankers entering Norway’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and request proof that they are properly insured.
There are no mandatory penalties if crews aboard the ships choose not to comply or are found to have inadequate coverage, the High North News website reported. The new regulation will be tested for six months, and then it will be evaluated, the Barents Observer reported. The rules are like ones previously approved by European allies, including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Hundreds of ships that normally carry Russian oil have been sanctioned by the European Union, so they are unable to get insurance through typical channels. Russia has been relying on a fleet of aging and often poorly maintained tankers to circumvent sanctions and an oil price cap passed by the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial nations, the European Union and Australia. The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Western companies generally won’t provide protection and indemnity insurance for these shadow fleet vessels. Ship owners end up turning to smaller, poorly funded Russian state-backed insurers, casting doubt on whether the ships have proper coverage in the event of accidents or spills.
More than 440 vessels in the shadow fleet have been sanctioned by the European Union, and dozens routinely pass through Norway’s coastal waters. Norway has seen increasing traffic in both oil tankers and liquefied natural gas carriers. Automatic Identification System data routinely shows vessels in the Barents Sea off Norway’s northern coast before they travel to Murmansk, Russia, to load up on oil.
“The government takes the challenges associated with the shadow fleet seriously. This type of traffic poses an increased risk to both the environment and safety at sea, while also helping to finance Russia’s illegal warfare,” Minister of Fisheries and the Oceans Marianne Sivertsen Næss said.
Norway also was the site of a scheme involving fake insurance certificates for dozens of Russian tankers, the Reuters news agency reported. A Norwegian-registered company, Romarine AS, purported to offer Western insurance coverage, but the firm was not registered through Norway’s Financial Supervisory Authority. As a result, the policies it issued were invalid, Reuters said.
The company denies wrongdoing, but Norway has launched a criminal probe. Norwegian authorities told Reuters they were investigating four people — two Norwegians, a Bulgarian and a Russian — on suspicion of creating and using falsified documents and other insurance-related charges.
Romarine is owned by Andrey Mochalin, a Russian citizen and former employee of Norwegian insurer Hydor AS, Reuters reported. Romarine’s website is based in Russia, according to Norway’s government-run domain name registry.