Obsolete tankers in the hands of Russia. A British accountant and an Emirati company assisted in the purchase

Shadow fleet allows Russia export about 4 million barrels of oil bypassing Western sanctions, which brings its revenues to the level of many billion dollars a year and finances its war in Ukraine – writes the British daily in its Thursday edition. Since 2022, Russians have spent over $10 billion on such ships.

Moreover, an oil spill from obsolete tankers and the resulting disaster are more than likely, said the FT's interlocutors.

Moscow was helped by 74-year-old Ormerod in assembling a fleet of old and worn-out tankers, who spent over $700 million on the purchase of these ships from December 2022 to August 2023. Each vessel was purchased by a different company registered in the Marshall Islands, and the transactions were financed by Lukoil's Dubai-based Eiger Shipping DMCC.

British shipping broker Braemar, one of the biggest players in this sector, has facilitated at least nine such purchases.

The management of the tankers was entrusted to subsequent companies registered in the United Arab Emirates and owned by shipping magnate Muhammad Tahir Lakhani, who is Pakistani but has British citizenship.

Companies based in Dubai are not obliged to respect Western sanctions unless they receive financing from G7 countries, explains “FT”.

Determining the real buyer of the tankers was made difficult by the fact that the shell company buying the ship belonged entirely to another company, which in turn belonged to another company, and so on, and at the very end of the chain was Ormerod. The acquired tankers flew the flag of the Cook Islands.

All these complicated procedures were intended to hide the fact that the transactions are carried out for Lukoil, that Russia owns the tankers, and that the purchases are financed by Russian banks, explained Craig Kennedy, an expert on Russian oil and tankers from Harvard University.

In a conservative assessment, assuming that the price of oil was $60. per barrel, the tankers purchased by Ormerod transported 120 million barrels of oil, which brought Russia about $7.2 billion. – calculated the log.

Western companies are considering scrapping tankers after 15 years of use due to the degree of destruction and the costs of possible repairs. The average age of ships in Russia's shadow fleet is 18 years and they are unlikely to be insured against an oil spill, said Benjamin Hilgenstock, an expert on oil sanctions.

– Shadow tankers carrying Russian oil pass through European waters, including the Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea, many times a day (…). There have already been several incidents and a major disaster is only a matter of time, Hilgenstock added.

In December 2022, EU restrictions came into force, consisting in a ban on oil imports by sea, as well as a global price ceiling for Russian oil of $60 per barrel agreed by the EU and the G7.

Such arrangements were expected to cut Russia off from much of the world's tanker fleet because insurers such as Lloyd's of London are barred by sanctions from insuring ships carrying Russian oil – regardless of its destination – unless it is sold under a price cap program. .

Russia redirected its exports to countries such as India, China and Türkiyewhich have become larger buyers of its crude oil as Europe has cut back on purchases.

The Finnish broadcaster Yle recently presented a report showing that of the approximately 600 ships transporting Russian oil, almost half are so-called shadow fleet; The Kremlin exports the raw material mainly through the Baltic Sea, and several vessels transiting the Gulf of Finland are on an international blacklist and classified as “for repair” or “scrapped”.