Asia Financial’s Post

#Breakingnews: Two Russian oil tankers wrecked in Black Sea The full extent of the oil spill and the exact fate of both ships remains unclear. Two Russian #oiltankers with 29 crew members on board have been heavily damaged in the Black Sea, triggering an #oilspill, authorities in Russia have said. Footage released by Russia's Southern Transport Prosecutor's Office showed one of the #tankers broken in half and #sinking amid a heavy #storm, with streaks of oil visible in the water. At least one crew member was reportedly killed. The second ship was said to have drifted after sustaining damage. In 2007, another oil tanker - Volgoneft-139 - split in half during a storm while #anchored off the Kerch Strait, spilling more than 1,000 tonnes of #oil. Russian oil imports have been heavily sanctioned by allies of Ukraine since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has been accused of using a so-called ghost fleet of tankers, which are often poorly maintained and lack proper insurance, to move oil and circumvent sanctions. Source: BBC News

"The first Russian oil tanker attempting to deliver crude while under US #sanctions made a secret cargo transfer onto another ship, a sign of the lengths to which Moscow is going to undermine the effectiveness of American restrictions on its fleet." "The #SCF Primorye was #sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control [#OFAC] in October, after which it didn’t load oil again for about six months. But in late April, the tanker went to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and collected a cargo of Urals crude before embarking on a 7,500-mile voyage to a location about 70 miles east of Singapore." The ship's crew is believed to have turned off the Automatic Identification System (#AIS), which ships use to report their location for security purposes; however, satellite images showed that on June 3, 2024, #SCF Primorye transferred oil to another vessel, Ocean Hermana, near the Riau archipelago, Indonesia. #Bloomberg claims to have identified both vessels by their size, deck configuration and paint job. The identification of Ocean Hermana and #SCF Primorye was confirmed by #TankerTrackers.com Inc., a company that specializes in interpreting satellite imagery to detect #sanctions-busting tankers. The Ocean Hermana is about 20 years old. #Sovcomflot #RussianOil https://lnkd.in/gQButXPD

Today's Wall Street Journal reports, "An armada of old tanker ships has sprung up to move sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil, putting sailors in peril and threatening environmental catastrophes." "In opting for these obscure “flag states,” the shadow fleet is sidestepping a system that has long helped keep the oceans safe, by ensuring ships are properly insured and seaworthy, and that sailors are well treated." "The shift took off last year, when Russia’s tanker fleet needed new flags to skirt U.S. sanctions enforcers. The migration from flags such as Liberia helped Russia move crude to buyers in India and China—and keep funding the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine." "Now, ships carrying these new flags or simply sailing under false flags make up as much as 15% of all tankers at sea, shipowners and brokers estimate. " According to the California Energy Commission, Russian crude oil imports to California totaled nearly 20,000,000 barrels in 2021. Why is this important? California imported 48,000,000 barrels of oil from Iraq in 2021. Then Russian sanctions hit. One year later, California Energy Commission reported zero oil imports from Russia and 68,400,000 barrels from Iraq. California increased imports from Iraq and 'eliminated' Russian oil imports in the span of 12 months. Coincidence? https://lnkd.in/g8pfTPew Also troubling, Russia is heavily invested in Iraqi oil production. In 2023, "Russia takes control of Iraq's biggest oil discovery for 20 years." https://lnkd.in/gFAPSA6P Iraq is the top source of foreign oil to California for the past two years running. Translation, Iraqi oil production is financing Russia's war in Ukraine and the people of California are buying Iraqi oil at record volumes - 70,000,000 barrels in 2023. #California #Iraq #Russia #Oil #Environment #Tankers https://lnkd.in/gBC67cip

Good article by the esteemed at Bloomberg Julian Lee , which reaffirms our earlier views and opinions that the Russian Dark Fleet of Russian Oil Tankers simply keeps on roaming the world with an estimated about 300 tankers, not bothered by #sanctions. These Ship-to-ship Transfers are highly dangerous and potential Environmental Disasters. Accidents are waiting to happen, whether it will be at the Baltic Sea, the Danish Skagerrak, Ceuta Spain, Laconia Greece, Singapore Straits. These ships are mostly invisible to us as they turn off AIS Radar 📻 or conduct in Radar Spoofing. Insurance of these tankers is lacking, and the clean-up of a disaster will be on the general public's burden. In case of an Oil spillage Accident, one thing is clear: Russia will not clean it up, we in the West will have to clean it up by ourselves.... Adding more Evidence in the Comment section about the Russian oil tanker STS (ship-to-ship) transactions in Singapore. We already noted that Her Russian Majesty the "Primorye" was already waiting in Singapore (fully loaded with Russian oil as her Draught Level was 16,0m, waiting for her sister ship to transfer her cargo. What is your opinion, the Russian (pretending to be Ukrainian) @lilya barchuk, is this "Just another Russian OPL transaction" ?, and FYI esteemed Eng Dih Teo, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)

It is an open secret that Russia is evading the oil price cap on a massive scale, raking in billions of dollars. It is an important source of revenue paying for Russia's war in Ukraine. Old and under-insured tankers are used to transport the Russian oil, the so-called Shadow Fleet. But how many are actually sailing along the coasts European countries? Together with Dimitri Tokmetzis, with the use of data provided by KSE Institute, I calculated this. Since early last year at least 410 different oil tankers have made over 1300 voyages. Through the Baltic Sea, Danish Straits, North Sea, past France and Portugal and towards the Mediterranean. With Turkey, India and China being their final destination. That means each day about three ramshackle vessels might cause a major environmental disaster. It is just an accident waiting to happen, warn Jan Stockbruegger (University of Copenhagen), Benjamin Hilgenstock (KSE Institute) and Craig Kennedy (Harvard). Read the full story on Follow the Money EU

Two Russian oil tankers shipwrecked in the Kerch strait, likely spilling thousands of tonnes of oil towards Russian-occupied Ukraine. These tankers are very old Soviet-built ones but this still serves to highlight the risks of shadow tankers lacking proper insurance operating near the coastlines of countries that should know better than let them transit. https://lnkd.in/dsVyX6dp

⚡ #Finland 🇫🇮 proposed locking Putin's shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea These are the ships that are shipping oil above the price cap without western insurance. And there is legitimate environmental reasons to do this, not just political. ☝️ Finland and the #UnitedKingdom are discussing the possibilities of restricting the movement of tankers of the Russian fleet in the shadows. These ships are not only transport oil defying Western price limits, but also pose a threat to the environment, since most tankers in the fleet are old and have terrible safety standards. 🎤 Representatives of #UK and Helsinki are considering plans to involve third countries in blocking Russian tanker movements in the Baltic Sea and La Manche, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told The Guardian during her visit to the British capital. 🛢️ About 100 tankers with Russian oil pass through the Vira Strait (part of the Gulf of Finland) between Finland and Estonia a month. Last winter, tankers between 15 and 20 years old (and without Western insurance) accounted for nearly 58% of Russian oil exports across the Baltic Sea (58 million barrels), according to Kpler and the P&I International Group insurers consortium. Even older ships exported 14.8 million barrels. In an attempt to bypass the upper border and western sanctions, Russia has learned to quickly preregister companies that own tankers and ships themselves. In this situation, it is less and less clear how much the tankers and their owners respect the safety measures. Oil sales is what keeps the 'Gas Station posing as a Nation' going - it's literally and figuratively fuel for Moscow's War Machine in #Ukraine Anything and everything we can do to contain the contagion must be done. #Journalism #Economy #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦

In a move to intensify economic pressure on #Russia, #EuropeanUnion envoys have agreed on a #newsanctions package targeting #Moscow’s clandestine fleet of #oil tankers, commonly referred to as #ghostfleets. These vessels operate in defiance of #internationalsanctions, enabling #Russia to maintain the flow of its #oil #exports despite Western restrictions. #shadowfleet #grayfleet #ships #maritimeoperations #trends https://lnkd.in/dCbuZVuX

In a move to intensify economic pressure on #Russia, #EuropeanUnion envoys have agreed on a #newsanctions package targeting #Moscow’s clandestine fleet of #oil tankers, commonly referred to as #ghostfleets. These vessels operate in defiance of #internationalsanctions, enabling #Russia to maintain the flow of its #oil #exports despite Western restrictions. #shadowfleet #grayfleet #ships #maritimeoperations #trends https://lnkd.in/dCbuZVuX

On Greek, Russian and shipbuilding dynamics: “Before the war, most Russian oil went to Europe. After the European ban, much of it was redirected to India and China, which meant much longer trips for tankers—and higher rates for shipowners making those trips. A typical journey from Russia’s Baltic Sea ports to the west coast of India, the most popular route for Russian oil, can generate an estimated $8 million in revenues—60% higher than the going rate in October 2023 and five times the rate in 2021. The Greeks have directly benefited from those higher prices. Between April 2022 and February 2024, Greek firms shipped 28% of all Russian oil exports, according to an analysis from the Kyiv School of Economics’ KSE Institute, based on data from commodities intelligence firm Kpler. Firms owned by Greek moguls—George Economou’s TMS Tankers, Andreas Martinos’ Minerva Marine and Prokopiou’s Dynacom Tankers—made up three of the five largest shippers of Russian oil over that time period, with Dubai-based shell companies set up by Russia’s state-owned Sovcomflot taking the other two slots. (While the latter two were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in December 2023 and February this year, none of the Greek firms have been sanctioned and there is no indication they have violated any of the sanctions on Russia.) A spokesperson for Minerva Marine declined to comment, while representatives for TMS and Dynacom did not respond to questions. “[The Greeks] are just running 30% of the Russian crude flows, but it's enough for them to basically finance a new shipbuilding spree,” says Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler.” #greece #russia #shipbuilding #evasion #oilCap #sanctions #oilTankers #transport