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ATHENS, June 5 (Reuters) - Western governments must accelerate scrapping of unregulated ships hit with sanctions and allow their operators a window to dispose of them as environmental hazards rise daily, one of Greece's top shipowners told Reuters.
The use of a so-called shadow fleet or dark fleet of tankers has accelerated in recent years with hundreds of tankers transporting Iranian or Russian oil with little scrutiny, insurance or safety checks.
Evangelos Marinakis, founder and chairman of Greece-based Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, a major ship operator with over 285 vessels ordered, has been actively pushing for the removal of unregulated tankers from global trading.
"We face every day environmental risks from dark fleet vessels," Marinakis told Reuters during the Posidonia shipping week in Athens.
"We should allow dark fleet vessels to be scrapped in both the United States and the European Union," he said.
Addressing the issue that proceeds from ship disposals would flow to potentially sanctioned entities, Marinakis said those typically amount to less than the profit from a single voyage and scrapping would help reduce the shadow fleet's massive profits.
Last month, top Dubai-based ship recycler GMS told Reuters it had won U.S. government approval to scrap four container ships that were under Iran-related sanctions, though their seller was not affected by sanctions.
Marinakis said his group had engaged with Washington on the matter and sent "a lot of useful material". He declined further comment and the U.S. Treasury did not respond to a request for comment.
The shipowner, who also owns Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest soccer teams, said shadow fleet operators should be given an opportunity to dispose of their ships within a limited timeline.
"If we give them four or five months to schedule the scrapping, we will see at least a 20%-25% reduction in the dark fleet," Marinakis said.
Ship recyclers should be allowed to remit dollars or euros to the owners of that dark fleet they are scrapping, but only for scrapping, he said. "This is the only way forward."
Reporting by Jonathan Saul, additional reporting by Timothy Gardner
Editing by Tomasz Janowski
Fuente: Reuters
