The UK has blacklisted 10 Sovcomflot ships it described as “high-volume offenders” working around the clock to transport Russian oil.
The measures mark the third round of designations since the UK began targeting shadow fleet vessels in June. It has now sanctioned 25 tankers.
The latest round, announced on Wednesday, includes six aframaxes and four suezmax tankers. The UK government said the vessels include three that alone have hauled oil worth more than $5bn since the invasion of Ukraine.
They are the Sovcomflot-linked 122,039-dwt Nikolay Zuyev (built 2012), the 111,682-dwt NS Asia and 102,946-dwt Zaliv Aniva (both built 2009).
The three ships have hauled a combined total of 30 cargoes from ports in Russia’s Far East in 2024 for delivery to China, according to Kpler ship and cargo tracking data. The data shows other ships on the list have delivered Russian oil to China and India.
All of the 10 new sanctioned tankers are listed by Equasis as managed by Dubai-based Stream Ship Management, which took over from other SCF Group operating companies when they were hit by Western sanctions.
The other vessels are the 109,908-dwt NS Clipper and the 110,066-dwt NS Corona (both built 2006), the 113,905-dwt Olympiysky Prospect (built 2010), the 156,630 Leonid Loza (built 2011), the 117,153 SCF Baltica (built 2005), the 162,397-dwt Vladimir Tikhonov (built 2006) and the 163,545-dwt SCF Vankor (built 2007).
Most of the ships are flagged by Gabon, but the Zaliv Aniva is on the Panamanian registry, according to Equasis.
“Russia has been forced to spend over $8bn amassing this shadow fleet,” UK foreign secretary David Lammy said.
“But with sanctioned tankers loitering and unable to load oil, we are determined to make Putin’s investment an expensive misstep for the Kremlin.”
The listing bars the vessels from UK ports and access to the UK Ship Register.
Significant impact
But the potentially more significant impact will prevent UK-linked shipping services and financiers from investing in the vessels or cargoes because of the risk of breaching sanctions.
The UK said previous action against ships had left the “vast majority” of them idling outside ports and unable to carry on their trade in Russian oil.
The listings take the total number of tankers hauling Russian oil targeted by Western sanctions regimes to more than 70.
The SCF Group has repeatedly been the subject of multiple designations including by the US in February when it listed 14 of its tankers.
Last month, Sovcomflot reported that its first-half profits had eroded because of the measures taken against it. The Moscow-listed group said net profit in the six months to 30 June was $324m, down from $496m in the same period of 2023.
The state carrier said it was “taking measures to resolve operational issues related to the operation of the sanctioned fleet”.
Frontline chief executive Lars Barstad said last week that he had lost faith in the ability of sanctions to crack down on shadow fleet vessels.
And Navios Group vice chairman Ted Petrone told the Capital Link conference in London this week that “sanctions don’t work” against the shadow fleet. He said that governments would only take concerted action after a huge oil spill.
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