In the Baltic Sea, the uninsified Russian shadows are sailing

In the Baltic Sea Now sail the ships of the shadow fleet, which has been convinced by the cover company Ro Marine. Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) revealed the company in March.

This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the Nordic countries, says the shipping leader Sanna Sonninen Traffic and Communications Agency Traficica.

« Ro Marine is not (according to media information) the right insurance company. It is said to provide insurance, but in reality there is no insurance company, » Sonninen sums up.

According to the NRK study, Ro Marine, registered on the Norges Rederiforbund in the Norges Rederiforbund in the shipping and cargo industry, is just a cover company. At least Achilles, an oil tanker sailing under the Panama flag, is purchased from this company, which is considered a vessel of the Russian Shadow Fleet. A shadow ship refers to ships that allow Russia to rotate the oil price roof set by the Western countries.

Norwegian police are investigating the case as a possible crime. Four people – Russian, Bulgarian and two Norwegians – are suspected of falsifying documents and unauthorized pursuit of insurance business.

Each The ship must have a flag state responsible for the supervision and conformity of the ship. This also means accepting and monitoring insurance.

The insurance must be because, for example, if the ship causes oil discharge in another state, someone must pay for it to clean it.

“It is very harmful to coastal states if there are no insurance on ships,” says Traficom Sonninen.

Non -existent insurance companies and insurance combined with the ever -deteriorating condition of the vessels are a real problem. On the other hand, it is very difficult to address the problem within the current international regulations.

According to the NRK, in the case of Achilles, Panama has accepted the « insurance » provided by Ro Marine.

NRK on Sunday According to the news published, the Norwegian authorities did not tell Finland that Achilles was coming to the Gulf of Finland. This happened in mid -March.

According to Sonninen, the detail is not essential, as Finland could not have addressed the ship’s operation in any way.

As part of the international maritime safety, it has been agreed that in the port state inspections, authorities have the right to check the ship arriving at the port. In the case of the Russian shadow fleet, the fact that the ships do not arrive at the ports of Finland. In this way, authorities do not have the right to inspect ships.

Achilles traveled to the Russian port and has since left the Baltic Sea. According to Sonninen, it is not essential for Finland to follow it.

According to him, it is more important to consider in cooperation between the Nordic countries and the EU, how the shadow fleet can be prevented in the nearby waters.

Finnish Since mid -December, she has asked insurance information from all tanker vessels that carry crude oil and oil products from Russia. The documents were also checked by the Achilles Bridge.

Certificates are requested electronically. Asking documents is possible in the so-called Gofrep area, the Gulf of Finland.

« The difficulty here is that if a fake document or name of the cover company is sent from the ship, we can do nothing at this time. »

Shadow fleet In addition, another special phenomenon has been swam to Finland’s waters: not all ships have even a specified flag state. This was suspected, for example, with a Kiwala oil tanker who took over the Estonian Navy last Friday.

However, this is a deficiency in which the maritime right allows permission to intervene. This is how Estonia Kiwala did. Estonian authorities investigated the ship and found 40 flaws of it.