RUSSIA faces a dilemma as its shadow fleet waits to ship oil under sanctions, reports Bangalore's Marine Insight.
Russia cannot move its oil to those places as it did to Europe, and its tanker fleet cannot carry it all.
The US and its allies imposed limitations to prevent shipping services and tankers from transporting Russian oil unless it is sold under or at US$60 a barrel.
The flagship oil brand in Russia, Urals, currently sells below the price, but that might change.
Therefore, Russia must turn to a fleet of tankers wanting to get around the sanctions to move crude to farther locations in Asia or otherwise.
Poten & Partners analyst Erik Broekhuizen declared that the shadow fleet comprises 200 to 300 vessels.
According to Mr Broekhuizen, the use of shadow fleets is regular and has been used by Venezuela and Iran to evade Western oil sanctions.
Most ships of the shadow fleets are reportedly owned by offshore firms in nations that have relatively lenient shipping norms.
A ship can change its name and ownership when it is in transit, so a vessel can reach a port with a name, and when it goes to another one, it could be the same ship but have a different name and owner.
The owners operating the tankers that belong to the shadow fleet have limited exposure to the EU or the US governments or banks.
Enforcement is tricky, making it a hard area to solve for Western nations.
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