Russian tanker carries out secret cargo transfer near Singapore to avoid US sanctions

The first Russian tanker attempting to deliver crude while under U.S. sanctions secretly transferred cargo to another vessel, a sign of the extent to which Moscow will undermine the effectiveness of U.S. restrictions on its fleet.

The SCF Primorye was sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in October, after which it did not load oil for about six months. But in late April, the tanker sailed to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and picked up a cargo of Ural crude before embarking on a 7,500-mile journey to a location about 70 miles away. eastern Singapore.

Russia has shipped about 3.4 million barrels of crude per day so far this year, worth about $37 billion at the export point, and circumventing Western sanctions is part of it. Oil revenues going to the state budget increased by almost 50% in May compared to last year, as crude prices rose and the country adapted to the measures. Nevertheless, the complicated logistics that SCF Primorye is involved in shows that there are obstacles to trade.

Shortly after arriving east of Singapore, the 900-foot tanker disappeared from the automatic identification system, or AIS, where commercial ships broadcast their location and destination for security reasons. AIS can be disabled by a vessel's crew.

However, after its disappearance, satellite images show that the ship transferred its cargo to another ship, the Ocean Hermana, on June 3. This secret transfer would in theory help whoever buys the oil distance themselves from dealing with a sanctioned vessel and any other sanctioned vessel. risk of further actions by the Treasury. Identifying the recipient vessel makes it difficult to conceal the origin of the cargo.

SCF Primorye, which held around 1 million barrels of oil, is owned by Russian national oil company Sovcomflot PJSC. The company declined to comment.

The two ships were identified by Bloomberg based on their dimensions, deck configuration and color. The identities of the two were confirmed by TankerTrackers.com Inc., which specializes in interpreting satellite imagery to spot tankers violating sanctions.

The Ocean Hermana is approximately 20 years old and its insurer is unknown. It has spent most of its recent history shuttling between locations around Singapore and the Strait of Malacca and ports in China.

Equasis, a database created to promote shipping security, says its operator is a company called Sygnius Ship Management Pvt in Calcutta. The company said via email that this was incorrect and that its only role was as the ship's crew agent. He did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.

Whether the cargo is ultimately delivered to a refinery – likely in China given the location of the transfer – will provide clues as to how easily Russia could repeat the process with its other sanctioned vessels. Since October, almost all of the 40 tankers sanctioned by OFAC have failed to load their cargoes and only one has been removed from the list of designated vessels. Not all of them belong to Sovcomflot.

Bloomberg tracked the movements of SCF Primorye on the AIS and then, when it disappeared from that system, reviewed modified Copernicus Sentinel data, processed with EO Browser from Sentinel Hub.

The SCF Primorye has now resumed its journey, heading northeast across the South China Sea and displaying a draft indicating that it is now empty. The last signal from the Ocean Hermana took place on June 10, near the cargo transfer location. Its draft indicates that the ship's cargo tanks are now full.

Another sanctioned ship, the Bratsk, is already following the route of SCF Primorye. It is now in the Indian Ocean, carrying a cargo of Urals crude loaded at Novorossiysk on May 23 and due to arrive off Singapore on June 17.

Other sanctioned tankers owned by Russian company Sovcomflot PJSC could follow. Seven more disappeared from tracking after entering the Black Sea. They are likely still there, as regulations require them to send automated position signals when transiting the Turkish Strait, making it difficult for them to navigate the Mediterranean without detection.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modification to the text.