Every day, Russian tankers carry billions of dollars` worth of oil across the Baltic Sea, writes lrt.lt.

"Despite sweeping Western sanctions, this trade continues to fuel the Kremlin`s war machine. While the Baltics are among the fiercest supporters of isolating Russia politically and economically, a network of companies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is helping to keep Moscow`s "shadow fleet" running. March 8, overcast morning – the crew of the bunker tanker Rina are prepared for another day of hard work at sea. Operating like a floating fuel station, this vessel refuels other ships passing through the Danish straits. Work is plentiful here – the waterway connecting the Baltic and North Seas is one of the busiest in the world. On average, around 200 ships pass through daily.

Among them are tankers from Russia`s shadow fleet – old, uninsured vessels with unknown ownership, helping Russia circumvent Western sanctions by selling Russian oil and petroleum products globally and in doing so, helping keep the Russian war economy afloat. At 11 AM, one of such vessels approached Rina for refuelling – a crude oil tanker named Blue, capable of carrying up to 1,000,000 barrels of oil – en route to Primorsk, one of Russia`s main oil export terminals. From there, it was scheduled to deliver crude to a refinery in Mangalore, India.

On that morning of March 8, as Blue took on fuel near Skagen port, an Antigua and Barbuda flag was fluttering on its deck. Formally the only vessel owned by an obscure Turkish company registered in an apartment in a small port town near Istanbul, the 20-year-old tanker routinely disables its Automatic Identification System (AIS) – a common shadow fleet tactic to conceal its route, the origin of its oil, and mid-sea transfers (STS) to other ships. In fact, Blue had previously been spotted off the coast of Greece transferring Russian oil to a sanctioned tanker named Ligera – in violation of sanctions – which then sailed to Venezuela.

Eight months later, on October 30, Blue was refuelled by another bunker tanker, Zircone. This time, it happened near the island of Gotland, alongside the main tanker route from Russian ports. Rina and Zircone belong to FB Trade, a company registered in Dubai. However, its connections and true owners lead to the Baltic bunkering giant Fast Bunkering, which until recently operated in the port of Klaipėda. An investigation by LRT, 15min, Eesti Ekspress, and Nekā personīga found that between June 2024 and March 2025, the bunker tankers Rina and Zircone conducted 286 ship-to-ship operations, refuelling 177 oil and oil product tankers, of which at least 159 had called at Russian ports shortly before or after these transfers.

We showed our findings to Anatalii Kravtsev, an analyst at the Kyiv School of Economics. According to his analysis, at the time Rina and Zircone supplied fuel, at least 20 of those tankers showed clear signs they were part of the Russian shadow fleet.

"Specifically, these vessels lacked insurance coverage from any member of the International Group of P&I Clubs, and their owners and management companies were registered outside the jurisdictions of the Oil Price Cap Coalition," said Kravtsev. Over a period of nearly 10 months, the two ships refuelled them at least 30 times.

On August 17, 2024, in one such instance, the tanker Rainbow met Zircone between Gotland and Latvia while carrying 37,000 tons of refined oil from Russia’s Primorsk port to Brazil. MarineTraffic data show the ship-to-ship transfer lasted from 13:39 to 16:40. A similar operation took place on December 14, 2024, when Rina refuelled Rainbow en route from Primorsk to Libya.

While international sanctions permit exceptions for refuelling vessels transporting Russian oil, stringent legal conditions apply. "Bunkering companies must conduct thorough checks, maintain transparent documentation, and comply with all legal standards," according to Petras Katinas from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. That includes verifying not only that the oil cargo adheres to the G7+ price caps, but also that the tanker does not exhibit shadow fleet characteristics – such as lacking valid insurance, working with sanctioned entities, or violating maritime safety procedures. This was also confirmed by Alexander Prokopakis, executive director at the International Bunker Industry Association.

Despite these rules, on March 21 Rina carried out a mid-sea transfer with the notorious shadow fleet tanker Fotuo in the port of Skagen. The next day, it was also refuelled by Zircone. In the course of nine months, both of them carried out two more mid-sea transfers with Fotuo. In May, it was added to the European Union (EU) and UK sanctions lists due to high-risk shipping practices", - reads the article.