The government of Comoros has begun a clean-out of its international flag registry which has been central to sanctions-circumventing dark fleet tankers shipping Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil.

There are now 62 tankers, three liquefied petroleum gas carriers and one tug declared as falsely flying the Comoros flag, according to the EU’s Equasis database.

Ships are labeled by the International Maritime Organization as falsely flagged once confirmed by the flag administration that it is not legally registered with that country’s flag.

All but one of the falsely flagged Comoros ships was sanctioned by either the US, EU or UK and engaged in Russia, Iranian or Venezuelan trades as of September 14, Windward data show.

False Flag Networks Aid Sanctions Evasion
Flag governance has emerged as critical for countering the dark fleet of sanctions-circumventing tankers which have exploited lax technical oversight and management at privately run registries.

Comoros, along with Gambia and Sierra Leone, are among the biggest providers of ship registry services to sanctioned tankers, as permissive flags such as Gabon, Barbados, Cook Islands, Panama, and others expel them from their fleets — triggering record levels of flag hopping among dark fleet vessels.

Windward research in August showed that Comoros flagged 38% of sanctioned dark fleet tonnage over 20,000 dwt that was not falsely flagged, followed by Gambia, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. 57% of sanctioned tonnage was falsely flagged, or the flag was unknown.

These numbers will be higher now that Equasis has added more than 60 Comoros tankers to the false-flag list. Their false flag status was backdated to May for most of the ships with a handful declared falsely flagged in July and August.

Western Governments Push Registries to Expel Sanctioned Ships
Privately operated registries like Comoros are viewed as critical enablers of sanctions evasion. This has triggered urgent diplomatic efforts amongst the West to lobby countries with registries used by the dark fleet to delete sanctioned tonnage.

There is rising concern about these elderly vessels’ lack of adherence to regulations and the threat this poses to international safety and environmental standards and crew welfare.

Comoros government signed a number of regional agreements with companies to operate their registry, Windward research shows. The Union of Comoros Maritime Administration operates via a Ukrainian office. Offices have also been traced in India, UAE, Bulgaria and Greece since 2023.

In addition to false flag ships sailing under legitimate flags, Windward has identified a further 12 fraudulent registries being used by the dark fleet.

These are Angola, Aruba, Benin, Curacao, Eswatini, Guinea, Guyana, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, St Maarten, and Timor Leste.

Source: Windward