Shipowners from Greece and other EU countries make money trading old ships and crude oil with Russia
By Analysts have recently noted a sharp decline in crude oil cargoes on vessels belonging to Greek shipping companies. The number of Greek-owned tankers carrying Russian crude oil has fallen to its lowest level since the invasion of Ukraine, Windward reports, based on Vortex data.
“This occurred even before the deadline for US sanctions [which expired on November 21st – MG] on Rosneft and Lukoil. According to preliminary data from Windward and Vortex, only three of the 65 cargoes of Russian crude oil loaded between November 1st and 16th were on Greek-owned vessels,” says Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a maritime intelligence analyst and shadow fleet expert at Windward.
Many tankers in the grey fleet, and certainly zombie ships, lack insurance from Western companies. Because these vessels do not call at European ports, Port State Control cannot detain them based on identified defects. It’s known that the ships are so damaged that they could cause an ecological disaster. And yet, demand for their use is not limited to countries supplying sanctioned oil.
GospodarkaMorska.pl reported that the tanker Mersin, part of the so-called shadow fleet, had been identified with a serious leak off the coast of West Africa – it was reported here. We wrote that international rescue services and organizations monitoring tanker traffic had confirmed that the Mersin (IMO 9296494, 105,000 dwt), sailing under the flag of Panama, had suffered a serious leak. The ship is carrying a cargo of crude oil. The ship is approximately 180 nautical miles west of the coasts of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Plans to introduce specific administrative measures prohibiting the sale of ships to the gray market fleet are being blocked by some European countries that rely on flag sharing. Resistance to introducing controls on trade in ships sold to “shadow fleets” comes primarily from EU member states, whose administrations generate significant revenue from ship registrations. These include countries such as Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. An attack on a “shadow fleet” vessel could also trigger a disaster. Such situations are currently occurring in the Black Sea. Recently, vessels flying the Gambian flag were damaged by Ukrainian drones, which caused fires. The Kairos, which was damaged by an armed drone, was sailing from Egypt to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The drone that attacked the Virat started a fire in the engine room. A total of 45 people were evacuated, including Russian sailors. GospodarkaMorska.pl provides more information on this here.
Leaky Restrictions
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced over a month ago that it was imposing further sanctions “due to Russia’s lack of serious engagement in the peace process to end the war in Ukraine. Today’s actions increase pressure on the Russian energy sector and hamper the Kremlin’s ability to generate revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy.”
On October 22, the United States announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest operators. They export more than half of Russia’s crude oil by sea, an estimated 3.6 million barrels per day. The United States has set November 21 as the start date for the sanctions. The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on these two operators a week earlier.
Greek tanker operators, even during the period of sanctions, continued to handle shipments of Russian crude oil. They emphasized that they had limited their participation to the limits established since the beginning of the war. The remaining Russian oil on the international market was transported by the shadow fleet and tankers owned by Russian operators. Zombie ships joined the “shadow fleet.”
Operators of these latter vessels and the shadow fleet openly circumvented sanctions by using outdated, poorly maintained vessels. Most shadow and zombie tankers sail under the flags of countries with unregulated maritime administrations or no such administrations at all. Many transport operations were uninsurable. From January to July, when the price of Russian Urals crude oil was below the $60 per barrel limit, Greek tankers legally transported up to 40% of all crude oil from Russia. These transports were carried out in parallel with services provided by sanctioned operators and shipowners operating shadow fleets.
Oil Price Restrictions
In August, EU and UK regulators announced a 15% reduction in the oil price cap to $47.60/barrel compared to September. This resulted in a significant portion of Russian crude offered on the market exceeding the cap. This limited the profitability of Greek shipping fleets. According to Windward data, the EU fleet tonnage used to transport Russian crude oil accounted for between 16% and 20% of seaborne crude oil shipments between August and October of this year. The situation changed dramatically after the UK and US sanctions were announced. In the first 16 days of November, EU oil tankers transported less than 5% of the crude oil.
The share of sanctioned tankers transporting Russian crude increased to 75%. In previous months, sanctioned tankers accounted for just over half of all Russian supplies, according to Windward. This situation occurred when Urals crude prices plummeted below the ceiling set for the EU and the UK. Greek tanker operators carrying approved Russian crude are expected to continue operating despite a new wave of tougher sanctions from the European Union, which will further tighten restrictions, shipping industry sources said on Friday.
A significant portion of Russian crude is currently exported by a so-called “shadow fleet” of unregulated tankers, but shipping data shows that Greek-owned vessels, part of the world’s largest tanker fleet, also carry some Russian crude that is neither sanctioned nor above the price cap.
The EU agreed on Friday on its 18th package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, including measures aimed at further damaging its crucial energy sector. A key element of these measures is the price cap, under which the EU will seek to prevent the purchase of Russian crude at less than 85% of the average market price. Currently, the ceiling is around $47.60 a barrel, well below the largely ineffective $60 ceiling that the Group of Seven Western powers have tried to impose.
Greece’s Floating on Russian Oil
Greek shipping companies, which handle dozens of oil shipments from Russia each month and account for about 20% of total trade, will continue to transport as much oil as is profitable, according to Reuters correspondents Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou. This is also confirmed by anonymous sources in Athens, “who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.”
Although it will be more difficult, such transactions remain “feasible,” said one source from a Greek shipping company involved in the Russian oil trade. “As long as investors continue to buy oil at this price, the situation will not change much, and we will comply with the new limit,” Maltezou reported, noting that “officials from the Greek Ministry of Shipping did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
The United States has not yet decided to comply with the EU price limit because most oil is sold in dollars. Only American banks can restrict dollar settlements. The actions taken in the oil market by the United Kingdom, which settles its operations in sterling, and the US decisions are likely to limit the effectiveness of EU action. This oil settlement policy could make it more difficult for European operators to trade Russian oil.
“As with previous requirements, they will have to comply with the new EU price cap and ensure they only trade products covered by the price cap,” said Leigh Hansson, a sanctions partner at law firm Reed Smith, as quoted by Jonathan Saul. London-based lawyers expect that the transportation of Russian crude oil and related services will be subject to a 90-day sunset period for contracts signed by July 18. Reed Smith is advising oil trading companies on their appeals to the UK Supreme Court.
From a Legal Fleet to a Shadow Fleet
It’s worth noting that the shadow fleet didn’t emerge out of nowhere. Shipowners made £4.8 billion selling tankers that bolstered the shadow fleets, recalls Jon Henley, European correspondent for The Guardian. He reports that during the first two years of the war, “European and American shipowners sold at least 230 old tankers to the shadow fleet, which Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions and finance the war with Ukraine.”
Shipowners have made over $6 billion (£4.8 billion) since Russia’s invasion in 2022, selling ships to buyers in countries like India, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the Seychelles, which are not participating in economic sanctions against Moscow. This is according to an investigation conducted by the Dutch investigative website Follow the Money (FTM). News outlets from nine countries were involved in the investigation.
The report found that Greek owners sold the largest number of oil tankers. 127 vessels were transferred to the secondary market, British companies sold 22 tankers, German operators sold 11, and Norwegian operators sold 8. Were it not for the demand for shadow vessels, most tankers would not have obtained the appropriate safety certificates and would have been sold for scrap at a fraction of the price. GospodarkaMorska.pl wrote about ship scrapping here.
In total, shipowners operating in 21 countries that have imposed sanctions on oil trade with Russia have sold tankers to the shadow fleet, according to an investigation conducted by Follow the Money (FTM). The shadow fleet is responsible for the transport of approximately 70% of all Russian oil exports, according to analyses of transport and STS operations conducted by a team of analysts working with the independent Kyiv School of Economics (KSE). Hundreds of freight transfers and vessel reflaggings were observed.
The report cited the case of two 15-year-old tankers belonging to a Greek shipowner that were sold to a company in Hanoi. The operator then changed the vessel’s flag from the Maltese Maritime Administration to Panama. These vessels later accepted cargoes of Russian oil from the Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The port was recently attacked by drones from Ukrainian intelligence services. GospodrakaMorska.pl reported on the attack here. Demand for oil tankers increased when upper price caps were introduced on crude oil. The best business was transporting cargo with shadow fleet vessels. “Many European shipowners had old tonnage that they believed wasn’t worth much. Suddenly, its value doubled – so they decided to sell it,” a Lloyd’s List analyst explained the financial basis of the operation to representatives of the FTM consortium.
Belgian Shipping Company Sells Tankers
Belgian shipping group CMB.Tech, among others, has capitalized on this tanker boom. The company sold five crude oil carriers for $135 million, which were added to its fleet in 2022 and early 2023. In a press release dated October 20, 2025, the company announced: “CMB.TECH has sold a number of tankers as part of its fleet renewal strategy, including three Suezmaxes (Selena, Cap Victor, and Cap Felix) for almost $120 million in late 2024 and three VLCCs (Iris, Hakata, and Hakone) in April 2025.”
The company generated a net profit on these transactions. It reports that it achieved “capital gains of approximately $97 million” on the sale of used vessels. In August 2025, the company sold the Suezmax Sofia for $40.1 million. A spokesperson for the operator told the Belgian newspaper De Tijd that it was not responsible for the vessels after they were sold.
At the end of 2023, the EU introduced new regulations requiring companies selling vessels to third countries to verify that they were not being used to circumvent sanctions. However, since then, 32 tankers belonging to European shipowners have been sold to the grey fleet, according to a report by Follow the Money (FTM). Selected tankers are currently prohibited from entering EU ports if their documents indicate they are carrying Russian crude oil or are engaged in “unsafe shipping practices.”
If the documents do not show this and are formally “in order,” the vessels are operated in EU ports. It is easy to see that port authorities and fuel terminal operators are keen on breaking records for oil transshipments, regardless of the origin of the oil. Oil traders have mastered the art of managing supply flows, and only technicians in refinery laboratories know exactly where the crude oil is coming from.