When BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010, few noticed the burning hulk was registered in the Marshall Islands.
But in 2015, when Shell sent the Polar Pioneer rig to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic, activists noticed it too flew under the flag of the tiny Pacific nation.
According to Greenpeace, 183 ships and rigs linked to the oil industry are registered in Majuro. In March its entire fleet passed the 131 million gross tonnes mark.