A tanker linked to Indian company Gatik Ship Management has been detained in Antwerp during a rare port call by a shadow operator in Europe, according to port control data.
The 73,741-dwt Galatia (built 2005) was detained on 24 July after inspectors identified 22 defects, including seven that gave grounds for detention, said the Antwerp port state control.
The Panama-flagged Galatia has this year lifted oil from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk while under the management of Gatik and has been involved in five ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Red Sea and off Greece in 2023, Kpler data suggests.
The STS operations included Greek and Turkish-controlled vessels as well as another former Gatik tanker, the Gabon-flagged, 37,252-dwt product carrier Voula, the data showed.
Authorities in Antwerp said it was investigating if the vessel had been involved in STS operations covered by the latest round of sanctions imposed by the European Union in June but currently had no grounds to detain the vessel for those reasons.
It said the detention was for purely technical reasons with most of the serious defects related to problems including with the emergency power supply and fire pump.
The tanker was under the technical and commercial management of Gatik from February before switching two months later to new operators in a pattern of behaviour that has been seen across the Gatik fleet.
Analysts believe the move was taken to reduce Gatik’s exposure to potential sanctions action after becoming one of the biggest players in the Russian trade since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Gatik was linked to more than 60 ships but was hit by the loss of class and insurance following scrutiny of potential price cap breaches. It is now listed as being the manager of just three vessels, according to the Equasis database.
Galatia’s registered owner is Hong Shipping & Marine, a single-ship company based in the Marshall Islands. It is also identified by Equasis as the commercial manager.
The technical management is Orion Ship Management, like Gatik, based in Mumbai. It has been contacted using the standard email format used by all the new managers of former Gatik vessels.
The European Union passed an 11th package of sanctions in June targeting Russia, which included more rigorous policing of STS oil transfers.
Tankers will be barred from EU ports if they fail to give 48 hours’ warning of STS transfers within 370 km of the shores of member states.
The Paris MOU regime previously identified five deficiencies during an inspection of the Galatia in June 2022 in Mongstad, Norway, but the tanker was not detained.
