The dark side: how Russian ‘shadow tankers’ skirt sanctions, raise oil spill risks in Asia

“Shadow tankers” from Russia are transporting oil cargo worldwide with a bulk bound for Asia, dramatically raising the risk of collisions and oil spills, an independent think tank has warned.

The Centre for Research Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Friday in a report said the number of such vessels that circumvented sanctions on Russian oil – due to having ownership and insurance outside G7 and the European Union – had increased massively since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Korea Strait, which saw the fifth-largest volume, recorded a 351 per cent increase in “shadow tankers” year on year between this January and August. In the same period, the Strait of Malacca between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean showed a 151 per cent increase.

Petras Katinas, author of the report, told This Week in Asia that 96 per cent of the “shadow tankers” shipping Russian crude oil were bound for Asian countries.

“The use of ‘shadow’ vessels to bypass sanctions is not new but has escalated dramatically since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Asian countries a key destination for these ageing ships. In the likely event of an accident and oil spill, coastal countries will pay the price,” he warned.

To date, 294 such tankers have transported Russian seaborne crude oil worldwide and been involved in 50 maritime incidents, according to the report.