“Russia was able to bypass Western sanctions, creating a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers. It is estimated that about 17% of all existing ships of this class are used for the transportation of Russian oil. Source: The New York Times Details: After the start of the full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine in 2022, the event introduced a number of sanctions designed to limit the Kremlin’s profits from oil exports.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: The New York Times
Details: After the start of a full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine in 2022, the event introduced a number of sanctions designed to limit the Kremlin’s profits from oil exports. However, the Russian Federation quickly set up a new scheme of earnings: it has collected fleet of old vessels with an opaque property structure that secretly deliver oil to China, India and other remote markets.
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According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, in early 2025, this “shadow fleet” numbered about 940 vessels – 45 % more than a year earlier. Its share is approximately 17 % of the world tanker.
Many of these vessels work without proper insurance, often change flags, provide false location data and overload oil in the sea. This complicates the tracking of the origin of oil and monitoring compliance with sanctions.
According to S&P, the average age of ships is about 20 years, compared to 13 years for the oil fleet as a whole.
“Lack of insurance in combination with very old vessels increases the risk of environmental catastrophe,” said Natalia Gozak, Director of the Greenpeace of Ukraine.
In addition, some of these vessels are suspected of underwater sabotage – damage to pipelines or cables.
“Many people want to make the simplest part of sanctions. But in fact we have created an even greater problem. Sanctions do not get them out of business. They get them out of legal business,” said IR Consilium Ralbi’s research expert and the founder of the IR Consilium research firm.
Prehistory:
- On September 12, a high EU representative, Kai Callas, said that the European Union finalized work on a 19th package of sanctions, for additional restrictions on Russian oil sales, “shadow fleet” of tankers and banks.
- On September 19, it became known that US senators have developed new legislation, which should significantly expand the US sanctions on the “shadow fleet” of Russian oil tankers.
- “European Truth” with reference to the main spokesman of the European Commission Paulo Pinho announced the approval of the proposal for a new-19th-a package of EU sanctions against Russia.