The UK added 11 new shipping sanctions on Thursday July 18th under its Russia sanctions regime related to the war in Ukraine. The government said the sanctions on ships included Zaliv Amurskiy (IMO 9354313) and SCF Pechora (IMO 9333424) related to the carrying of oil or oil products from Russia to a third country.
The new UK administration under Sir Keir Starmer issued a “Call to Action” to the European community as it launched a new wave of sanctions against tankers violating the price cap imposed by the Western nations.
“Alongside our European partners, we have sent a clear message to those enabling Putin’s attempts to evade sanctions: we will not allow Russia’s shadow fleet, and the dirty money it generates, to flow freely through European waters and put our security at risk,” said the prime minister.
Speaking at the European Political Community summit today he called on the 44 European Countries and the EU to “tackle the use of illegitimate vessels which also pose significant security and environmental threats to European waterways”.
The UK repeated allegations that some of the ships are doubling as “Russian listening stations,” while they said others were believed to be transporting weapons. Legal changes in the UK in May 2024 made it possible for the first time to directly sanction tankers, as opposed to companies.
The administration of former PM Rishi Sunak imposed sanctions on four Russian tankers in June.
The US has imposed sanctions on or about 42 tankers, while the EU sanctioned 17 vessels in June. The UK’s list includes eight owned by Russian state-run shipping company Sovcomflot. All the vessels are being managed from Dubal. Seven are flagged in Gabon, three in the Cook Islands, and one in Panama. Two of the vessels had previously been listed by the EU. The UK claimed that one of the vessels, crude oil tanker Rocky Runner (IMO 9288899) now registered in the Cook Islands, sought to escape the previous UK action by changing its operator.
The UK in its statement claimed that its actions in June halted tankers responsible for transporting approximately 13m barrels of Russian crude and oil products since January 2023, worth about $930m.
Bloomberg oil strategist Julian Lee noted that the west was moving inexorably toward a moment at its policymakers had sought to avoid: actions that might disrupt the flow of oil from Russia.
While it was generally accepted that the sanctions had disrupted parts of the flows of oil, he felt it to be more debatable, whether oil supply from Russia as a whole had been cut or freight costs for exports had become more expensive.
An estimated third of Russian state-controlled Sovcomflot PJSC’s fleet of oil tankers — including crude, products and chemicals carriers — was now under sanction, according to Bloomberg’s industry data .
The size of the shadow fleet of vessels that has grown to carry Russia’s oil and avoid the G-7 nations’ price cap has been estimated at more than 600 vessels. The tankers that have been sanctioned thus far therefore represented a small percentage of the potential target, wrote Lee.
“But the more steps that are taken, the more the fleet moving Russian barrels gets squeezed, and the greater the risk of oil-market consequences”, said Lee – once again raising the inherent contradiction in the sanctions – the need to cut Russian income, but without impacting global supply of oil – a percentage of it necessarily from Russia.
“The west is forever at risk of self harm if it sanctions Russia too aggressively and successfully”, wrote Lee in a Bloomberg article, noting that “Moscow may just carry on as normal, waiting see how far the west is willing to go, and whether G-7 nations are prepared to do anything so oil-market disruptive as to undermine their own economies. They haven’t so far.”
2008-built, Panama-flagged, 60,178 gt Zaliv Amurskiy is owned by Buxus Seaway Ltd care of Stream Ship management of Dubai, UAE. As of July 19th the vessel was in the Gulf of Aden en route to Sikka, India (ETA July 24th), having left Primorsk on June 27th.
2007-built, Gabon-flagged, 29,844 gt SCF Pechora is owned by Duport Marine Services care of manager Fornax Ship Management of Dubai, UAE. As of July 20th the vessel was off the coast of Brazil, having arrived at Santos on June 20th.