By Jonathan Saul, Parisa Hafezi and Marianna Parraga LONDON/DUBAI/PANAMA CITY, July 26 (Reuters) – Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran, around Africa’s southern tip and into the...

(Bloomberg) –Escalating tensions in the Middle East’s biggest shipping chokepoint is raising speculation over who is responsible for tankers ensnared in the hostilities. The latest ship that’s been thrust into...

By Marianna Parraga and Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY, July 12 (Reuters) – Panama will withdraw its flag from more vessels that violate sanctions and international legislation, the country’s maritime authority told...

By Jonathan Saul LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ shipping agency is working on tougher measures to clamp down on rogue shipping companies trying to use flag registries fraudulently...

Liberia has surpassed rival Marshall Islands as the world’s second largest ship registry in terms of gross tonnage, according to leading shipping analyst Clarksons in its Clarksons World Fleet Monitor...

By Jonathan Saul and Polina Devitt LONDON/MOSCOW, July 12 (Reuters) – At least two countries have struck cargo vessels off their registries in recent weeks after the ships were involved...

The Paris MoU on Port State Control has published its updated “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” for 2014, ranking flag states from quality flags to flags with a poor performance record that are considered high or very high risk.

(Bloomberg) — Iranian oil tankers are mistakenly signaling their flag state as Tanzania-Zanzibar and no such registration took place, according to a government official from the east African nation. The...

Flag states rally to support seafarers abused by pirates by Will Watson [dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile it is anecdotally known that seafarers are suffering brutal abuse at the hands of pirates operating in...

As of recently, deepwater self-propelled drilling vessels were considered “MODUs”, or mobile offshore drilling units.  Recent changes to flag state classification rules now classify these vessels as “Dynamic Positioning Vessels”,...

The Liberian-flag fleet posted record growth figures in 2010 and has now doubled in size in the ten years since the management of the Liberian Registry was assumed by the...

Photo by Boat Nerd Writing this just off the deck of a newbuild in South Korea I am amazed at the market advance of two organizations, the Marshall Islands Registry...