Russia is expanding its 'shadow fleet' despite Western sanctions — media reports

This is according to Bloomberg.

According to the agency, four LNG tankers – the ‘Kosmos’, ‘Luch’, ‘Orion’ and ‘Merkury’ – have recently changed their flags to Russian and are heading towards the Arctic.

According to vessel tracking data, some of them are moving through the North Atlantic, whilst one is heading for Murmansk, which is located near the Saam floating gas storage facility used for exports from the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is subject to US sanctions.

According to the Equasis vessel database, the tankers changed their registration and flag in March–April following a change of ownership. They previously belonged to Oman Ship Management Co. or entities associated with it.

The publication notes that these vessels bear the hallmarks of a “shadow fleet”: they are older than the typical modern fleet of LNG tankers and have been transferred to little-known companies through opaque ownership structures and intermediaries.

In total, according to a Bloomberg analysis, at least 16 tankers have already been involved in transporting LNG from Russian sanctioned projects. One of the vessels was previously damaged in March and taken out of service.

According to Equasis, in February, the Hong Kong-based company Mighty Ocean Shipping Ltd. became the owner of the “Kosmos” and “Luch”, whilst the “Orion” and “Mercury” were transferred to Celtic Maritime & Trading SA.

As a reminder, it was previously reported that Ukraine had expanded its strikes against the Russian shadow fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.

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