When a shadow fleet tanker goes dark, our agents don’t stop looking.
Joined October 2022
- Tweets467
- Following46
- Followers31
- Likes145
Sweden's coast guard boarded the sanctioned tanker SEA OWL I this week off Trelleborg, citing threats to safety and the environment. Tracked AIS shows it hasn't moved in over 24 hours. Designated by Canada, Switzerland, the EU and the UK, broadcasting a Comorian flag.
Aframax tankers leaving the Russian Baltic have one way out: the Danish Straits, too big for the Kiel Canal. Four sanctioned ones moved through it today, three in the Skagerrak/Kattegat approaches, one inside the Great Belt. Each is designated by four or five jurisdictions.
Three sanctioned tankers, BRATSK, VIKTOR TITOV and CLEAN OCEAN, reached the Barents Sea approaches to Russia's Arctic oil gateway this week, 150 to 195 km north of Murmansk. BRATSK and VIKTOR TITOV are each designated by six jurisdictions, CLEAN OCEAN by two.
This morning, 19 sanctioned vessels sat at anchor in one stretch of the Gulf of Finland, off Russia's Ust-Luga and Primorsk oil terminals. Every one is under Western sanctions.
Three sanctioned tankers ran the same route into northern Europe this week. Each flies Panama on paper but broadcasts a Russian identity at sea, and each answers to more than one name. The UK, EU, Canada and Switzerland have all sanctioned them.
1
18
A sanctioned tanker from Russia's state shipping line just ran from Suez to the English Channel. Our AIS tracked Spartan up through the Suez Canal on 3 September, the length of the Mediterranean, out through Gibraltar and up the Atlantic into the Channel by the 15th.
1
19
A sanctioned tanker sailed the length of Europe to Russia's biggest Baltic oil terminal. Our AIS tracked Aktros, sanctioned as Torex, from the western Mediterranean on 31 August, out through Gibraltar and up the Atlantic to the Gulf of Finland.
1
37
A designated tanker, broadcasting a Russian identity, crossed from the Arctic toward Ireland this week. Our AIS tracked it off Russia's Arctic coast and down the Norwegian coast to 9 September. Then nothing, for about 90 hours and 1,800 km, until it surfaced west of Ireland.
1
27
The EU boarded this shadow-fleet tanker south of Sicily on 30 August, checked its flag, and let it go.
Fourteen days later our AIS had MV Sun in the Gulf of Finland. In April Estonia said it would stop detaining shadow-fleet tankers in its waters.
Boarding is not detention.
22
The EU's naval mission has boarded six suspected Russian shadow-fleet tankers since its mandate was extended. A flag check ends in release. The seizures are French and British, and Estonia stopped detaining them in the Baltic since Russia put warships in the Gulf of Finland.
20
The shadow fleet runs on fuel, and the EU is now sanctioning the ships that deliver it.
Its first bunkering vessels are designated: ships that refuel sanctioned tankers at sea so they never enter a port that might detain them. KUMANA was among the first five.
10
IMO 9832559 broadcasts PROMETEY on AIS. Its sanctions record calls the same hull VIRAT, formerly Valour and Crudesun. PROMETEY is not on any of that paperwork. The EU, US, UK, Switzerland and Canada sanction it, all keyed to the IMO number.
1
14
ANTARES has carried eight names: Antarctica, Peria, Stena Antarctica, Imperia, Minerva Antarctica, Pictor, Four Antarctica, and now ANTARES. The US, UK and Canada sanctioned it, and the sanctions record still carries an earlier one, Pictor. IMO 9322827 is the constant.
1
14
A sanctioned tanker loaded to 15 m draft in Russia's Gulf of Finland on 25 August, ran laden across the North Sea, then went dark off Norway on 4 September. KUSTO is sanctioned by the EU, UK, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. A listing reaches only as far as the signal does.
1
21
ARABESCA went AIS-dark for 135 hours in the North Sea, about 2,700 km off the grid. It resurfaced off Lisbon on 31 August still drawing 14.7 m, and anchored off Port Said on 8 September, still laden. Sanctioned by the EU, UK, Canada, Switzerland and Australia. IMO 9288734.
1
21
A sanctioned Sovcomflot tanker loaded near Russia's Gulf of Finland terminals around 30 August. Eight days on, Georgy Maslov is off southwest Portugal, still laden, having crossed the Baltic, North Sea, Channel and Biscay. About 4,500 km sailed, still heading south.
19
179 tankers show up flagged in sanctions data, and no government has designated any of them. 178 are on Ukraine's war-tracking list, which names vessels but does not sanction them. On a feed, a tracking-list hit and a government sanction look identical. They are not.
8
Screen the UK sanctions list for the tanker STILGAR and nothing comes back. Screen by IMO number 9291250 and it is there, designated as CORTEX and sanctioned by five countries. Ukraine lists the same hull as STILGAR. The IMO is the field that finds it every time.
1
1
7
The US has sanctioned 738 oil tankers. The EU has sanctioned 635. They agree on 255. Screen a ship against one list and you clear ones the other has named: 483 sit on the US list and not the EU's, 380 the reverse. Of every tanker either has named, less than a quarter are on both.
1
12
IMO 9270749 broadcasts as IRA. Its registry lists it as Bela. It has also sailed as Gauri, Jag Prabha and Pacific Oasis. One hull, five names. Six sanctions authorities designate it by the number that never changes: the IMO.
1
17