Russia's Shadow Fleet Maintains Access to G7 Insurance

The shadow fleet of tankers handling a substantial proportion of Russian seaborne exports has kept access to insurance services in the West, according to Energy Intelligence.

• Energy Intelligence estimates that G7 and EU owned ships handled 20% of Russia's seaborne exports before Urals breached the price cap.
• Reports suggest a larger proportion of these exports are covered by G7 insurance, although this is hard to verify as the trade of Russian oil is bowed very opaque. 90% of shipments were covered before the price cap.
• The shadow fleet emerged at significant scale after the G7 imposed restrictions shipping of Russian oil, above a certain price, set at $60/b for crude from last December.
• There is a growing risk of price cap violations following the jump global oil prices recently due to the spread of obscure trading firms replacing traditional players.
• Sources say a key weakness of the price cap scheme is that Western shipping and insurance firms don't know the price of the cargo and rely on self-attestation, requesting documents from traders that confirm a sale was compliant.