Russia's Shadow Fleet Turfed Out by NATO Navy Drills

Tankers transferring Russian oil off the southern coast of NATO member Greece have been pushed out further into the Mediterranean because of naval exercises taking place in the area where the cargo switching normally takes place, it has been reported.

The exercises present an obstacle for Russia's shipment of seaborne oil by its growing shadow fleet, which is Moscow's response to a price cap on the commodity imposed as part of Western sanctions for Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The measure bans Western countries from transporting, buying or insuring seaborne oil from Russia for more than $60 per barrel, although Moscow has circumvented this using a fleet whose vessels' ownership is reorganized to obscure their connections to Moscow.

When sanctions were placed on Russian supplies, the Laconian Gulf in southern Greece became a hub in the oil supply chain and was where cargoes were switched between vessels.

But after the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service had said naval exercises will take place between May 1 and May 9, the area has been abandoned by tankers that had been flocking there, clustering instead just to its south, according to data by TankerTrackers.com Inc. cited by Bloomberg.

The exercises put out of bounds an area in international waters southeast of the Peloponnese islands, six nautical miles off the coast of Laconia.

"Seafarers are prohibited from passing through the reserved sea area," Greek website Lakonikos reported.

"So far this looks like a temporary situation," Yörük Işık, from the Bosphorus Observer maritime consultancy based in Istanbul, told Newsweek. "After these naval games end the ship-to-ship transfers should resume."

Işık said that so far there Russian price cap violations have not been hampered although Russia is taking seriously threats by Denmark, which last month temporarily closed the Great Belt strait between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen, key to tankers transporting Russian oil. This followed the activation of a faulty missile launcher on a Danish navy vessel, leading to the risk of "falling missile fragments."

Işık said the risks posed by older tankers transporting Russian oil in the Bosphorus, the English Channel and the Danish straits, "remain extremely high as older tankers are working on behalf of Russia carrying Russian seaborne crude."

There is a risk that such vessels transiting these narrow straits could trigger a major environmental incident, he added.

Bloomberg reported that the number of Greek-owned tankers transporting Russian crude fell from 40 in May 2023 and 20 in the second half of last year, to just eight in January 2024. Since tougher U.S. sanctions aimed at stopping price cap busting came into effect in February, the U.S. Treasury has been asking the owners of such tankers to explain how they are complying with the price cap.

However, Bloomberg has reported how Russian oil is moving in other parts of the high seas. It reported that a tanker flipped a cargo of crude onto a vessel in the Red Sea in April, which then transported its consignment to India. It was the first ever switch observed in that location in ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.