The European Union and the United Kingdom have sanctioned Intershipping Services, a UAE-based company that operates the flag registries of Gabon and Comoros, both of which have played a central role in supporting the opaque tanker network transporting sanctioned Russian crude. The move – part of sanctions packages announced on Friday – marks one of the most direct efforts yet by Western governments to target the infrastructure enabling Russia’s shadow fleet. According to EU findings, Intershipping Services is headquartered in a tower in a Dubai suburb, with a family-connected office in Mumbai managing the Comoros register. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Gabon flag surged in prominence, absorbing dozens of tankers dropped by more cautious registries. Among these were a large share of Sovcomflot’s fleet, the Russian state-controlled tanker giant under sanctions. By 2024, Gabon became the fastest-growing shipping registry in the world—largely driven by the influx of Russian tonnage. Both Gabon and Comoros have long attracted scrutiny from port state control authorities. Comoros, in particular, has become synonymous with high-risk maritime behaviour. It ranks on the Paris MOU blacklist, is red-flagged by the US Coast Guard, and is consistently in the top tier of crew abandonment cases, according to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). Comoros is also notorious for its involvement in Iran-linked oil shipments, and both it and Gabon frequently appear in sanctions evasion alerts related to illicit trade with Venezuela, Russia, and Iran. The notorious tanker Pablo (pictured), which exploded off Malaysia in 2023, was flagged to Gabon at the time. The sanctions were announced the same day the UK matched the EU’s decision to lower the oil price cap for Russian crude from $60 to $47.60 per barrel, aiming to tighten the screws on Moscow’s revenues. While symbolically significant, the impact of the price cap reduction remains muted without US enforcement, since most maritime oil transactions are still conducted in US dollars. The US has yet to endorse the EU’s floating cap mechanism, creating a growing transatlantic rift in sanctions enforcement. Without US financial power behind the measure, many analysts remain skeptical about its efficacy in curbing the shadow fleet’s profits. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsComoros Gabon