Greek Navy Extends Drills to Block Russian Oil Tankers
The Greek Navy has extended its drills in an area of water just off the country’s southeastern Peloponnese coast, effectively blocking Russian oil from being transferred to other ships.
The Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service website shows that exercises in the Laconian Gulf, about 110 miles southwest of Athens, will now continue until July 15th, an extension on the previous period which ended on Monday. After the prior drills had ended, several tankers re-entered the areas that had been restricted. But most stayed out.
How are the Greeks disrupting Russian oil transfers?
Greece started conducting exercises in the gulf in an effort to disrupt activity that helps Russia export its oil to the world. The first actions were introduced at the beginning of May and were then extended.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, international sanctions have made trading Russian crude and oil products increasingly difficult, prompting traders to seek loopholes to export them, including offshore ship-to-ship transfers.
In recent months, waters around the Greek southern coast and the Laconian Gulf have been meeting oil transfer points, especially for tankers carrying Russian oil onto other vessels.
Vessels are positioned beyond the limit of six nautical miles from the shore to avoid cargo and vessel checks by Greek authorities. “You cannot perform an inspection on a ship with a foreign flag in international waters. Unless a vessel carries a Greek flag your hands are tied,” an unnamed source told Reuters.
In April, Reuters reported that four tankers were stuck near the Laconian Gulf after the United States hit the vessels with Iran-related sanctions.
Russia has been grappling with the loss of insurance and other shipping services as Western countries turn the screws on Moscow with financial sanctions.
The European Commission is expected to propose sanctions on oil tankers in the so-called “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil outside the Group of Seven countries (G7), European Union sources told Reuters last month.
The Euromaidan website cited the Ukraine-based Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies and Black Sea News as saying the vessels imported 82.9 million barrels from Black Sea ports between December 5th and February 29th.
Of this, 68 percent was transported to Greece’s Laconian Gulf for transshipment.
Russia has found at least one new location—close to a Spanish enclave in North Africa—for the cargo switching. The cargoes are transported from Russian ports and then transferred onto waiting vessels that deliver the loads to Asia. Some of the ships don’t have insurance details on a website maintained by the International Maritime Organization.
There are other signs of change in how Russian oil is transported. One tanker also flipped a cargo of crude onto another vessel in the Red Sea in April.
Business Wire
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