Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has increasingly relied on a so-called shadow fleet to bypass Western sanctions and transport its oil around the world. Other heavily sanctioned countries, including Iran and Venezuela, have also been accused of using such vessels to export petroleum products. These tankers often rely on deceptive practices like turning off their location transponders to evade detection and conceal the cargo's true origins or destinations.
The fleet, which consists largely of aging, uninsured and poorly maintained tankers, has raised widespread concern across the shipping industry. Yet it has expanded rapidly in recent years and now accounts for nearly 19% of global oil tanker capacity, according to estimates by financial intelligence firm S&P Global. "The shadow fleet is a scourge," Elisabeth Braw, senior fellow at the think tank Atlantic Council, said, adding that "it is in nobody's interest" to have these ships sailing around in the world's oceans.
She pointed out that these tankers undermine the maritime order and increase the risk of accidents and environmental damage. "Every country should use its leverage with Russia to ask it not to use the fleet," she told DW, noting that ultimately all countries suffer the consequences. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video To clamp down on the fleet and curb Russia's oil export revenues, the United States and European countries have stepped up efforts to intercept tankers accused of violating sanctions.
The Trump administration, however, is reportedly considering lifting sanctions on some shadow fleet vessels and allowing them to transport oil that is not subject to sanctions. A US official told earlier this month that the move was intended to ease record-high global freight rates. Lifting sanctions on the shadow fleet "would decrease the effectiveness of the sanctions regime overall," said Michael Carpenter, senior fellow for Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Such a move "rewards the aggressor and helps Moscow gain revenues to continue attacking Ukraine," he told DW. "This is the exact opposite of what the US should be doing if it wants to end the war." Carpenter, who previously served as US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said any sanctions relief would also put the US and the EU "strategically at odds with each other, with the EU clearly backing Ukraine and the US increasingly supporting Russia's financial goals." This view is shared by Ben Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Lifting sanctions on shadow fleet tankers would "make it substantially easier for Russia to trade its oil at market rates," he said, pointing out that it would "improve its government finances since so much revenue is tied to energy markets." US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, however, rejected suggestions that the US was removing sanctions from shadow fleet tankers.
"We are converting dark tankers to legitimate tankers," Bloomberg quoted Wright as saying last week. "There is no removing of sanctions," he stressed, adding that the US government was working with investors who buy idle sanctioned tankers, refurbish them and use them to transport oil that is not subject to sanctions. "We're going to move some of the ships from what I call the 'bad-guy fleet' to the 'good-guy fleet,'" Wright said.
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