Russia is updating its “shadow fleet” of tankers

The shadow fleet of Russian tankers carrying sanctioned oil is beginning to “get younger”.

This month, the average age of tankers that are sold to unknown buyers (as Bloomberg suggests – Russian Federation) decreased to 15 years. Buyers choose new vessels because of safety concerns and because of inspections at some ports.

For example, China, which is one of the biggest consumers of Russian and Iranian oil, recently increased inspections of old tankers in the key port of Qingdao. This led to queues of over a month to unload the batch.

In addition, tankers are also detained in Singapore for not passing security checks.

Previously, USM reported that Singapore detained 28 vessels last year, and about 33 tankers in 2023 alone. This is as much as in the entire decade up to 2019.

The photo is illustrative.