"Shadow fleet" of Russian oil tankers is forming in the world - Bloomberg investigation

This is reported by Bloomberg.

Christian Ingerslev, chief executive of Maersk Tankers in Copenhagen, which operates a fleet of 170 ships, said that "if you look at how many ships have been sold over the past six months to undisclosed buyers, it’s very clear that a fleet is being built up in order to transport this".

According to shipbuilding broker Braemar, 240 more vessels - 102 Aframax, 58 Suezmax, and 80 very large oil tankers - have been purchased to support the transportation of four million barrels per day by Russia to the Far East. Even last year, they transported Iranian and Venezuelan oil.

Anoop Singh, Braemar's head of tanker research, said there has been a sharp increase in tanker trading by unknown entities in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Cyprus. Many of them are old vessels and will end up in the shadow fleet, and some tankers are also supplied by the Russian shipowner Sovcomflot PJSC. 

Bloomberg also predicts a surge in ship-to-ship transshipments. This is related to both the sanction risk of processing exports directly from Russian ports and the need to transship small cargoes onto larger tankers for long-distance voyages.

• Before the entry into force of the oil embargo on Russian oil, its export increased sharply, and the Kremlin's income increased accordingly.