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European and American shipowners have pocketed at least $6.3bn from selling hundreds of ageing tankers on to shell companies, from where they make their way into the shadow fleet, a new probe carried out by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and investigative journalists from Follow the Money has revealed.
The report tracks the sale of around 230 ships and how they often quickly changed names and flags on being sold, and then started to shift oil for Russia with some very well-known names in European shipping mentioned, especially out of Greece who accounted for more than half of the sales that ended up in the shadow fleet.
Direct sales of oil tankers to Russian entities are prohibited under European Union sanctions imposed in 2023. But indirect sales to companies from countries that are not participating in sanctions are not illegal. Follow the Money and its media partners identified at least 32 tankers of European owners that were sold into the shadow fleet after those rules came into effect at the end of 2023.
“More than a third of a shadow fleet of tankers transporting Russian oil consists of vessels that had previously been owned by shipowners from Western countries – the same countries that are sanctioning Russia because of its war of aggression against Ukraine,” the joint investigation states.
The number of vessels hit by sanctions surpassed 1,000 late last year with data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showing that more 800 of these ships do not have confirmed insurance. Moreover, the average age of sanctioned ships – 21 years – is some eight years older than the global average, adding to growing concern that the sprawling so-called shadow fleet could lead to multiple costly environmental catastrophes.
Despite slowing, the grey fleet is still growing by around 10 tankers a month, according to brokers BRS.
Nearly two in three vintage tankers carried Iranian, Venezuelan, or Russian cargoes last year, according to estimates from broker Gibson.
San Marino, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Comoro Islands, Guinea Bissau and most notably Guinea are the flag states that stand out for their extraordinary fleet growth in the latest data compiled in Clarksons Research’s World Fleet Monitor, statistics that highlight the whack-a-mole game authorities in the West are having to fight in their bid to crack down on the growing shadow fleet.
San Marino’s growth will likely raise questions within European circles – its fleet growing by 663% over the past 12 months to 1.1m gt.
Guyana in South America has also been making headlines in recent months, its fleet growing by 576% in the past year to 3.3m gt. The fleet is also notable for its average age, standing above 40 years old.
It is in Africa, however, where flag states have mushroomed the most in step with the growth of the shadow fleet – Sierre Leone up by 105%, the Comoro Islands by 104%, Guinea Bissau leaping by 340%, and most extraordinary of all, Guinea’s flag state growing by 99,094% over the past 12 months.
Another flag that has been in the news a great deal for its shadow fleet links, Barbados, saw its fleet grow by 177% in the past year, according to Clarksons data. Under pressure, the London-headquartered Barbados ship registry has said that by the end of January it will have asked a total of 46 ships to remove the country’s flag as a result of UK sanctions.
“Russia’s use of the so-called shadow fleet poses a particular threat to the maritime and environmental security in the Baltic Sea region and globally. This reprehensible practice also threatens the integrity of undersea infrastructure, increases risks connected to sea-dumped chemical munitions, and significantly supports funding of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” noted a joint statement from the heads of state or government of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden last month.
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