New U.S. Sanctions Affected Vessels That Transported a Fifth of Russia’s Oil Exports in 2024

On January 10, the U.S. Treasury announced one of the largest sanction packages against Russia’s energy sector. The list includes 187 vessels, most of which the American authorities consider part of the Russian shadow fleet. The restrictions have not yet affected already chartered tankers — more than half of them continue to sail to India with cargo worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In total, the sanctioned tankers accounted for more than a fifth of Russia’s oil exports in 2024, IStories found out. What and where these vessels were transporting?

How much Russian oil is delivered by sanctioned tankers

During 2024, two-thirds of the vessels included in the latest U.S. sanctions list (122 tankers) actively participated in the export of oil and petroleum products, according to an analysis of their routes. Another 22 vessels indirectly work for the export of Russian oil: storage tankers, which store oil before further transshipment; shuttle tankers, which deliver it from oil platforms to large ports; as well as bunker tankers, which refuel bulk carriers and oil tankers with export goods. 

The list also includes 16 supply vessels (they, in particular, deliver drilling equipment to offshore platforms) and tugs, 3 bulk carriers, and 3 LNG tankers. 21 sanctioned vessels have not visited Russia for more than a year or have never entered Russian ports, according to the data analyzed by IStories. Of these, seven vessels were not commissioned by the time the sanctions were announced, and one service vessel has not moved between ports and has not had valid documents since 2022. 

IStories studied data on the latest voyages of the sanctioned vessels. Over the past 2.5 months (from November 2024 to the first half of January 2025), 98 of them departed from Russian ports. They were supposed to deliver more than 64.1 million barrels of oil and petroleum products. Their total value, calculated based on the average price of Urals crude published by the Ministry of Economic Development, exceeds $4 billion. For comparison, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated Russia’s oil export revenue for December 2024 at $15 billion. 

According to MarineTraffic, right now 21 vessels have not yet unloaded at their destination ports. They are carrying about 15 million barrels of oil and petroleum products, the value of which can be estimated at $1 billion. The majority (12 tankers), according to the indicated ports of destination in the Automatic Identification System (AIS), continue to head to India even after the announcement of the restrictions. The fact is that the new U.S. sanctions introduce a grace period: the measures do not apply to tankers chartered before January 10 and unloaded before March 12.

However, according to data from Reuters, 65 tankers from the Russian shadow fleet dropped anchor off the coasts of Russia, China, and other countries after the sanctions were announced. At least 5 tankers, carrying about 4 million barrels of oil, are idling in Chinese waters, and another seven are off the coast of Singapore. 

This was a direct effect of the sanctions — according to the plan, the vessels should have already arrived at Chinese ports for unloading. However, not everyone observes such caution: one of the tankers under U.S. sanctions was allowed to unload at a port in eastern China on January 16. 

Throughout 2024, the sanctioned vessels provided the export of about 600 million barrels of oil, or more than 1.6 million barrels per day, IStories found based on port data. Sergey Vakulenko, a senior research fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, confirmed that this assessment reflects reality. 

The volume of shipments by sanctioned tankers corresponds to more than a fifth (22%) of all Russian oil exports as of December. The IEA came to the same assessment, concluding that the sanctions “could significantly disrupt the supply and distribution chains of Russian oil.”

What and where do the vessels on the U.S. list transport

The main consumers of Russian oil remain India and China. They accounted for more than 75% of the volume of oil and petroleum products transported by vessels from the latest sanctions list in the last 2.5 months, IStories calculated. This reflects the overall picture: India and China purchased about 81% of all exported Russian oil after the invasion of Ukraine.

Among the most active participants in the oil trade that have fallen under sanctions are the tankers Si He, Hui Hai, and Surrey Quays, all flagged in Panama. Each of them transported about 15 million barrels of oil and petroleum products in 2024, equivalent to $1 billion in export revenue. 

The top ten tankers by export volume in 2024 included vessels based in the port of Kozmino in Primorsky Krai. “For transporting oil from Kozmino to China, it is logical to have tankers only on this route,” Vakulenko explains. “These vessels can make more voyages, so they have good turnover.”

At the same time, vessels such as Alliance, Tai Shan, and Nichole, which have taken a lot of oil from Kozmino in the past year, have not been sanctioned, Vakulenko notes. IStories confirmed that they exported more than 11 million barrels of oil and petroleum products in 2024. The Nichole vessel, also flagged in Panama, could have shared the first place in the ranking with the tanker Si He. 

The port, which is managed by a subsidiary of Transneft, serves as the terminus of the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. From a branch of the same pipeline, Russia directly transports hundreds of millions of barrels of oil to China annually. 

The sanctioned LNG tankers Christophe de Margerie, Pskov, and Veliky Novgorod supplied liquefied natural gas to Belgium and Turkey in 2024. Christophe de Margerie appeared in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge almost monthly — during the year, it provided about 28% (592 thousand metric tons) of all Russian LNG imports to Belgium, calculated IStories based on data from Russian ports and S&P. 

This country ranked third in terms of liquefied gas supplies from Russia to Europe in 2024, after Spain and France. In recent days, the EU has been considering a ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas, writes Bloomberg. European countries may introduce tougher measures to limit Russia’s export revenues in the next sanctions package, but the mechanism for abandoning gas has not yet been determined.

The list also includes 12 shuttle tankers — some of them regularly deliver oil to the port of Murmansk from the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform and the Varandey terminal in the Barents Sea. Another 8 service vessels operate between the Molikpak, Piltun-Astokhskaya-B, and Lunskaya-A drilling platforms and the port of Kholmsk in the Far East.

One of the supply vessels, Vitus Bering, services the Berkut platform, Russia’s largest offshore oil and gas drilling platform, located 25 km from Sakhalin. This is evident from its Maritime Declarations of Health, which also indicate the vessel’s route on its last voyage. The Berkut platform was installed in 2014 as part of the international Sakhalin-1 project, which also involved the American company ExxonMobil. Its assets were transferred to Russian ownership in 2022, and a subsidiary of Rosneft became the operating company of Sakhalin-1. 

21 vessels from the U.S. sanctions list of January 10 have not moved between Russian ports for at least the past year, IStories found out. Of these, six tankers are likely still under construction. Reuters notices the fact that three tankers have so far only received temporary numbers: Zvezda 131080, Zvezda 131060, and Zvezda 131040. However, the U.S. Treasury has already indicated the name of the vessel under number 131060 — Okeansky Prospect, exactly the same as a tanker launched in 2022.

The list also includes the tanker Valentin Pikul, the construction of which was officially completed on December 25, 2024. On January 1, it departed for the port of Nakhodka from the Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen, and a week later it was sanctioned.

Why were vessels that had not visited Russian ports sanctioned? 

The sanctions affected not only vessels directly related to Russian oil exports. The U.S. Treasury imposed restrictions on all tankers owned by companies violating the price cap on Russian oil. For the application of this measure, it was sufficient for only one vessel of the company to ignore the established price range. This is how tankers moving between countries in South America and Southeast Asia came under sanctions. 

As environmentalist Evgeny Simonov, a member of the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group (UWEC), writes, three vessels from the sanctions list — Sanar 7, Sanar 8, and Boray — acted as storage tankers. They received Russian oil from smaller tankers at sea for further transfer to larger vessels.

All three tankers have not entered Russian ports since 2014-2016, according to data analyzed by IStories. Sanar 8 participated in oil transshipment in the Kerch Strait, starting in 2013. At that time, the Ukrainian portal BlackSea News noted that oil was being transferred to the tanker from river-sea class vessels. The Volgoneft tankers that wrecked in December 2024 belong to this class.

According to the vessel tracking service MarineTraffic, Sanar 7 and Boray are anchored approximately 30 km south of the Kerch Strait. Sanar 8 was located in the same area of the Black Sea, but disabled its Automatic Identification System (AIS) a day before the sanctions were announced. 

The sanctions also affected the tanker Oxis, which had not previously appeared in Russian ports, but was observed engaging in clandestine oil transshipment from a sanctioned vessel directly at sea. In July 2024, Bloomberg journalists documented the transfer of oil from Russian tankers to Oxis off the coast of Oman. The tankers Belgorod and Bratsk fell under suspicion, but journalists were unable to determine which of them participated in the clandestine operation.

As IStories ascertained, the captains of both tankers indicated that they visited the OPL (Off Port Limits) zone of the port of Sohar in Oman on the same dates when journalists suspected them of being connected to Oxis. Bratsk was in the Omani port zone on July 17, 2024, and Belgorod on June 30 and July 13. When departing on these voyages, both tankers listed China as their destination country, but did not specify the port. This information comes from Russian port data.

Consequences of US sanctions

On the same day, January 10th, sanctions were imposed against some of Russia’s largest oil-producing companies: Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz. Their goal is to remove some of the Russian oil supply from the global market, believes Sergey Vakulenko, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Center. These are major players whose combined production volumes surpass those of Norway and Kuwait. The measures against the oil fleet are intended to prevent Russia from taking advantage of the price increases caused by the sanctions. 

According to shipbrokers interviewed by Bloomberg, the new sanctions will lead to an increase in the volume of Russian oil transshipment between tankers on the open sea. In response to restrictions in export trade, smaller ports may be utilized. Crude oil from Russia is popular among small refineries in China due to its low cost and short transportation times.

Sergey Vakulenko suggested that Russia may follow Iran’s example. “About 50% of Iranian oil is transported by tankers that have fallen under sanctions since 2012,” the expert says. “Most of them transport oil to the shores of Singapore, to the Off Port Limits (OPL) zone, where the oil is transshipped to other tankers. These tankers then deliver the Iranian oil to China.”

In Chinese customs data, Malaysia is indicated as the country of origin for this oil. As a result, it exports more oil than it produces, Vakulenko notes. 

Chinese authorities have not yet commented on the US measures against Russia’s energy sector. India will not reduce the volume of purchases of Russian oil, writes Hindustan Times, citing a representative of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

“A period of uncertainty will come for the next six months — shipowners, oil companies, buyers, and port administrations will figure out what is actually allowed and what is completely forbidden,” Vakulenko considers. “They will decide who is ready to take what risks and for what reward. New logistics chains and new pricing for Russian oil and its transportation will be built, as happened first in the spring of 2022, and then in the spring of 2023.”

Editor: Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya