2023-12-09 10:04:38
It was a sailing skipper very unusual for a tanker of such dimensions. Last June, as confirmed by the Canarian newspaper ‘La Provincia’the Lauren II, a rusty two-decade-old tanker, panamanian flag, 332 meters in length and close to 160,000 tonswas tumbling off the coast of Western Sahara, about 160 miles nautical attractions to the south of the island of Hierro. I had just received the load of a tanker of smaller dimensions, arrived from a Russian port in the Baltic Sea, and was waiting for a new similar transfer, an operation known in maritime jargon as STS, acronyms in English for Ship to Ship Transfer. Once the mission was completed, the ship, with its keel already well sunk under the sea surface, set course for Far East Asia, where it is currently located.
These risky naval maneuvers, which are always carried out in International waters and force two ships loaded to the brim with Polluting substances to position themselves evenly for several hours, they have known a spectacular increase since the beginning of the year, “unparalleled” as described by experts. The reason for all this is irrefutable and is well known: to allow Russia to circumvent the sanctions on its crude oil exports, in particular on the price ceiling imposed a year ago by the G-7, the EU and Australia of $60 per barrel of oil transported by ship, a measure that was intended to be implemented through insurance companies maritime transport companies, mostly based in London, which were prohibited from closing contracts above this figure when it came to Russian crude oil.
“Until February 2022, the vast majority of Russian oil was transported by tankers operated by large companies; in a matter of six to 12 months, Russia has put into operation an opaque and fragmented structure,” made up of small shipping companies that in some cases only They own “one or two vessels” and whose freight is insured by non-transparent companies based, not in the British capital, but in Dubai or Hong Kong, states El Periódico de Catalunya, from the Prensa Ibérica group. Christopher WeaferCEO of Macro-Advisory, a consulting firm specialized in strategic issues in the Eurasian region. This man, with extensive experience in Russia having been director of the research departments of several Moscow-based investment banks, denounces that this fleet, which transports nearly “half a million barrels” daily, is made up of vessels that in many cases “they have already exceeded their useful life” and that “they would never receive certificates of navigability from the EU.”
He marine trade It is possible thanks to the existence of large insurance companies, which guarantee that, in the event of a collision, accident or spill, compensation will be paid to the countries or individuals who may be harmed. However, in the case of the Russian ghost fleet, everything hangs in the balance and nothing is guaranteed. “No one knows (the content) of the insurance agreements for these ships, not even people I know who are very well positioned in the marine insurance sector,” he criticizes in an email message. David Oslerresearcher in Lloyds List, a specialized publication in the sector. These entities, which could be supported indirectly from the Russian State or the client State, “have not been valued by Western rating agencies, and we are all unaware of their financial strength or ability to pay in the event of a major lawsuit,” he continues.
The stage for an environmental catastrophe is set. And given the volume that this non-transparent trade has acquired in recent months, it is no longer about “and an accident is going to occur, but when it will be“warns Weafer. “The risk that no one will be responsible for the costs in the case of a spill like that of the Prestige ship in Spain in 2002 is high,” denounces Osler.
Putting a stop to the operations of this ailing fleet is almost a chimera for the coastal countries. Between April and May, the Spanish authorities increased controls and managed to scare away the STS operations that were taking place in international waters of the sea from Alboran, not far from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which has become one of the main world hubs for Russian oil along with the Greek coast of the Peloponnese. The only thing they managed to do was move the bulk of the STS in the summer months to waters near the Canary Islands, taking advantage of the good weather and “the decrease in tides in the Atlantic Ocean,” as reported at the time in an informative office Vortexa, a company that monitors global energy markets through satellite data.
For the moment, the main practical consequence of this dangerous unregulated trade is that it nullifies, in the short term, the punitive impact of the Russian oil price cap on the Russian economy. It is having no effect “on the volume (of exports), and the sales price ends up being above” the limit set by the G-7, the EU and Australia, says Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory. According to this expert, Russian coffers are receiving “enough money to continue the war effort and keep the local economy stable.” As a test, the latest income data for Russian oil exports. In the month of October alone, they rose to 11.8 billion dollarsa figure significantly higher than the little more 8 billion dollars March 2022, when tore off the invasion of ukraine.
Like everything that has to do with Russia and sanctions, the consequences will only be felt in the future. To sell the oil that they previously sold to the EU, Russian oil companies are forced to offer their customers in China and India, their new markets, discount prices in relation to those offered by their main competitors such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.
The Russian Federation is receiving “much less money than under normal conditions, which will hurt its economy in the long term,” Weafer agrees.
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