Bloomberg: a shadow fleet of oil tankers is being created in Russia

Russia is creating a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers with unknown owners, said Bloomberg with reference to experts. According to the agency, this is happening against the backdrop of the imminent entry into force of the EU embargo on Russian oil supplies. At the same time, the US has been sounding the alarm for several weeks now that this could lead to higher prices in the run-up to the midterm elections.

Much of Russia’s shipments will use a complex and “often secretive” network of “ships, owners, ports and safe passages” predominantly from organizations that still want to do business with Russia, Bloomberg said. “If you look at how many vessels have been sold in the last six months to unnamed buyers, it becomes very clear that a fleet is being built to carry them,” said Christian Ingerslev, Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Tankers.

Shipping broker Braemar believes that Russia will need 240 ships that were previously allegedly used to transport Iranian and Venezuelan oil. In his opinion, even this amount will not be enough to support exports at the level of 4 million barrels per day to Asian markets. Braemar notes that trade in tankers has skyrocketed ahead of December 5 from undisclosed entities based in countries such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Cyprus.

The European Union agreed to impose an embargo on Russian oil, with a number of exceptions in June. The restrictions are due to take effect in December. On October 7, the EU introduced the so-called ceiling on oil prices from the Russian Federation. Sanctions now threaten companies for shipping Russian oil to third countries at a price lower than that to be determined by Brussels.

How Restrictions on Russian Oil Could Lead to Chaos – in Yuri Barsukov’s column – “Tankers in the Fog of War”.