Russia has reportedly procured more than a hundred old tankers, dubbed a “ghost fleet” by maritime trade experts, to ease the impact of Western sanctions on its oil exports, according to the Financial Times.
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Shipping brokers report having received several anonymous orders for 12-15 year old tankers at the end of their useful life and believe that these vessels would be bought by Russia.
“These are buyers with whom we, as experienced brokers, are not familiar, explains to the British daily the head of research on tankers for the firm Braemer, Anoop Singh. We estimate that the majority of these tankers would be destined for Russia.”
Energy research firm Rystad estimates that Russia may have procured more than 100 new tankers by 2022, including several reassigned from Venezuela and Iran.
According to experts, this “ghost fleet” would have the effect of mitigating the effects of Western sanctions on its exports, since they depend largely on maritime transport.
This scheme, however, would not be able to completely circumvent new European Union and G7 sanctions which came into force on December 5 and which prevent insurers from covering tankers carrying Russian oil, unless it is sold. below a price limit.
This therefore forces Russia to turn to countries such as China, India and Turkey for its exports.
The journeys would therefore be longer for tankers, which partly explains the need for Moscow to procure more.
The number of ships needed for Russia to maintain its export rate is, however, “mind-blowing”, according to the expert on Russian oil exports at Harvard University, Craig Kennedy, in an interview with the Financial Times.
“They can try lots of tricks, but there’s just too much oil to export,” he said. They are going to struggle to operate at the scale necessary to keep all of their exports out of price limits.”
Russia might therefore find it difficult to maintain its export rate at the start of 2023, when other sanctions should come into force, which would have the effect of increasing the price of a barrel.
