Six unfinished Russian tankers hit by US sanctions – Reuters

Six Russian oil tankers, still under construction at Russia’s Zvezda shipyard, were hit by US sanctions imposed last week, the first time Washington has banned tankers before they have even put to sea, let alone transported of sanctioned cargoes, writes the Reuters agency.

The sanctions, imposed last week, sent oil prices soaring and tanker shipping costs higher as the outgoing Biden administration moved to hurt Russian oil exports and thwart Moscow’s efforts to build its own navy.

Read also: Sanctions against the “shadow fleet” of the Russian Federation were a painful blow to the Kremlin

A Reuters review of the measures showed that six tankers being built at the Zvezda shipyard were among 183 vessels sanctioned. Among them are “Nursultan Nazarbayev”, “Alexander Beggrov”, “Alexei Bogolyubov” and three more vessels, the names of which have not yet been named: “Zvezda 131080”, “Zvezda 131060” and “Zvezda 131040”.

According to the text of the sanctions, the buyer of the vessels “Alexander Beggrov” and “Alexei Bogolyubov” is the Russian company “Sovcomflot”, and the buyer of the other four is the shipping division of “Rosneft” “Rosnefteflot”. Both buyers are also under US sanctions.

On January 10, the U.S. Treasury Department announced another large-scale package of sanctions targeting Surgutneftegaz and Gazpromneft and their refineries, as well as 183 vessels of the Russian shadow fleet that transport oil at a price higher than $60 per barrel. According to analysts’ estimates, about 10% of the world’s oil tanker fleet has already been sanctioned.