A ship registry in Barbados stated that it would require 46 ships to remove their flag by the end of January, as they were subject to British sanctions, as Bloomberg states. This registry is kept in London, and according to his CEO, Giovanni Cinillo, Barbados does not apply sanctions against Russia, but complies with the rules adopted by Britain because of the good relations between the 2 nations.
Barbados will not remove its flag from tankers affected by US sanctions unless they are simultaneously sanctioned by the United Kingdom. However, with 46 ships banned, only 14 are besides covered by American restrictions.
In turn, the Panaman Sea Office late announced that it had begun removing 68 ships from the registry of ships that were subject to US sanctions. This decision was made after Panama adopted government at the end of last year to compliance with US, EU, UK and UN sanctions. At the same time, the flag was taken from 4 LNG tankers belonging to Singaporen companies and associated with the Arctic LNG 2 project, on which US sanctions were imposed.
Barbados is considered to be 1 of the world's most renowned ship registration countries. Countries that let ships to fly their flag play a key function in ensuring maritime safety standards. Due to sanctions Russian ships increasingly gotta registry again in distant jurisdictions and change owners, which makes it harder to track them.
According to data from the Equasis maritime database, any ships removed from the Barbados registry have already been registered in another countries, including African countries specified as Tanzania and São Tomé and Principe. While most, if not all, ships find fresh places to register, the request to continuously hide increases costs, complicates logistics and deprives ships of advanced quality service.
