Dark STS Transfers of Russian Oil up in Q2

Opaque transfers of Russian oil at sea more than tripled in Q2 2023, according to Platts.

• In Q2, 47m bbl if Russian crude and oil products were transferred via ship-to-ship by vessels turning off their location transponders. This is up from 15m bbl on Q1.
• This suggests that Russian oil has turned to grey tanker operations to circumvent the embargo and G7 price cap.
• S&P Global data found that 394 dark ship-to-ship transfers in Russia's Exclusive Economic Zone took place during Q2, up from 266 in Q1.
• Uptake has increased since an EU embargo and price cap came into effect on Russian products on Feb. 5. Such restrictions had already been applied to Russian crude since Dec. 5
• “Generally speaking, Russia doesn't want Western countries to know what sort of commercial activity is up to them," Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the think tank American Enterprise Institute said. "It's very hard to hide completely, but they are raising the hurdle by having the ships turn off AIS [automatic identification system]."