The key switching of Russian gasoline cargoes between tankers at sea has migrated to new hotspots off the coast of Greece after the European nation used naval drills to try to block the exercise in a single location.
About 1 million barrels a month of diesel, gasoline oil and different petroleum merchandise has been getting flipped close to the islands of Lesbos and Chios within the Aegean Sea, in accordance with knowledge from analytics agency Vortexa. The world solely turned common after Greece’s navy carried out drills across the Laconian Gulf, beforehand the No. 1 web site for the observe in Europe.
A surge in ship-to-ship transfers involving Russian oil and gasoline in and round Europe has raised environmental considerations due to query marks over the protection and insurance coverage of the vessels concerned.
The observe, generally carried out in secret with digital monitoring beacons switched off or falsified, might help to obscure the origins of the oil, serving to to beat sanctions. It additionally creates one other layer of separation between the consumers and sellers of cargoes.
Ship-to-ship switching continues to be occurring shut by the Laconian Gulf, however at a much-reduced price since Greece’s naval drills started. The maneuvers left a slender stretch of water unaffected and it’s in that location that they’re nonetheless going down.
The transfers have additionally turn into common off the Italian port of Augusta since Could, when the Greek navy started its workout routines. On November 14, the drills have been prolonged till mid-March.
{Photograph}: An oil tanker sail at sundown. Photograph credit score: Marcelo del Pozo/Bloomberg
Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.
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