Helsinki (AFP) – While Russian oil exports dropped last year, Russia is still exporting higher volumes than before its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, researchers said Tuesday, calling for stricter sanctions enforcement. The volume of Russian crude oil exports remained six percent above pre-invasion levels in the fourth year of the war, despite Western sanctions aimed at curbing Russia’s “shadow fleet,” according to a report by Finnish think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Russia’s shadow fleet consists of ageing tankers, with often opaque ownership, used to circumvent sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States, and the G7 group of nations. However, oil revenues, which are fuelling Moscow’s war chest, have dropped below pre-invasion levels, as Russia has been forced to adopt price discounts, the report said.
“We’ve seen a significant drop in Russian fossil fuel export earnings as a result of new measures and greater enforcement,” Isaac Levi, a CREA analyst and co-author of the report, told AFP. But he added that “there are still significant loopholes and areas that have been unaddressed by sanctioning countries,” allowing volumes to remain high. Loopholes include the false flagging of ships but also the issue of re-exportation of refined fuels made from Russian crude oil to sanctioning countries. “We propose a ban of imports from any refinery or storage terminal that has received a shipment of Russian oil in the previous six months,” Levi said.
Russian revenues from crude oil exports — one of Russia’s main exports — decreased by 18 percent to 85.5 billion euros in the 12 months leading up to February 24, compared to the year before, according to the report. Meanwhile, volumes fell by six percent to 215 million tonnes for the same period, according to the report. Ninety-three percent of Russian crude was exported to China, India, and Turkey.
The report urged the EU and UK to “detain Russian shadow fleet vessels that pose huge environmental and security threats to European and UK coastlines.” The European Union lists 598 vessels suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” that are banned from European ports and maritime services. It also called for an end to Hungary’s and Slovakia’s continued imports of Russian crude oil. The two countries, which were exempted from EU sanctions on Russian oil imports, imported 11 percent more Russian crude oil in the first 10 months of 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier, the report stated.
© 2024 AFP
