Moscow’s use of the tankers prohibited by formal sanctions for their involvement in the Russian oil trade is accelerating, with close to one-third of the blacklisted vessels back at work.

At least 21 of the 72 tankers sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.K. Treasury or the European Union in the past year have loaded a total of 24 cargoes of Russian oil since they were designated in response to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

A combination of increased confidence from buyers and — in particular — a lack of concern about measures imposed by London have likely helped Moscow and its customers to find workarounds.

The rate at which the tankers are being brought back into operation is increasing, with at least seven taking on cargoes in the first ten days of October, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s up from six in both August and September, and just five in total before that.

Initially, the blacklisted tankers remained idle. None of the sanctioned vessels carried a single cargo of Russian, or any other, oil until April 2024 — six months after the first ships were named. Since those first cargoes were delivered successfully, the use of the sanctioned tankers has soared.

The first sanctions were imposed by the U.S. on October 12, 2023, when it took action against two ships, the SCF Primorye and the Yasa Golden Bosphorus, for transporting Russian oil sold above a price cap of $60 a barrel that had been imposed to restrict Moscow’s oil income.

The U.K. government began naming individual ships in June, followed by the EU later that month. In total, 73 were named, with nine sanctioned by more than one authority. One tanker, the Yasa Golden Bosphorus, was removed from the U.S. sanctions list in April.

Measures imposed by the U.K. seem to be the least effective. Almost two-thirds of the total cargoes loaded so far have been carried by vessels sanctioned by London. All of the tankers put to work in September and October have been sanctioned by Britain, with only one of them also targeted by Brussels.

It means two-thirds of all the ships sanctioned by the U.K. are now back at work.

More Effective

In contrast, the U.S. action appears to have been more effective. Just six cargoes have been carried on four of the 39 tankers blacklisted by Washington. Most of those targeted by OFAC have remained idle since being named, some for almost 11 months.

Separately, 50 of the ships have been renamed since being sanctioned, many being reflagged at the same time. Thirteen of the sanctioned ships now sail under the flag of Barbados, whose ship registry is quartered in the country’s High Commission in London.

Most of the crude cargoes have headed to Chinese ports, but about one-third have ended up in India — a sign that the country’s previous reluctance to deal with sanctioned entities is now a thing of the past.

While all the early shipments on sanctioned tankers were loaded at Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast, more recent cargoes have been collected at almost all Russia’s export ports. In part, that reflects the decision by the U.K. authorities to name vessels that operate exclusively out of Russia’s Pacific ports.

Even if the sanctioned ships are idled again, the blacklisted tankers are just a tiny part of the shadow fleet amassed by Russia to move its crude and refined products outside the reach of the Western powers. That’s curtailed the effectiveness of the measures, with plenty of other ships available to keep the oil, and the Kremlin’s income, flowing.