Faced with mounting pressure from the Greek navy, Russian oil traders have found a new place to shift crude in the Mediterranean, highlighting the difficulties in controlling the activity that both regulators and European governments have warned about.
Vessels carrying Russia’s main crude oil, Ural, are now transferring their cargo from smaller vessels to a larger vessel near the city of Nador on Morocco’s east coast.
Ship tracking data collected by Bloomberg show that since last month, the Greek Navy has been conducting naval exercises at the site of these transfers.
Rollin, a very large crude carrier (VLCC), receives oil from a small vessel called Serendi near Morocco. This is the first time that cargo exchange between ships has taken place in this area. Serendi is accompanied by two other ships – Ocean AMZ and Sea Fidelity – which arrived recently. Last month, the trio loaded about 730,000 barrels of Urals into the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsky.
The use of VLCCs provides economy for long distance shipping. Currently, 80% of Russian crude oil is sent to Asia, mainly India and China. However, European countries are wary of allowing cargo transfer near their coasts, which has led to a shift in transfer areas.
Previously, Ceuta was a popular destination for such transfers, but it was rarely used last year due to pressure from local authorities and the European Union. At the same time, Greek naval exercises prevented the same operation in the Gulf of Laconia, 170 kilometers southwest of Athens. Russian ship-to-ship exchanges in the region grew rapidly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is a UN body that defines rules for maritime transport. The agency classified cargo transfer on the high seas as a “dangerous practice”, highlighting the risks involved in this type of activity.
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