A large amount of Russian oil continues to be transferred between tankers a few miles off the coast of Spain.
The shift in charge comes weeks after authorities there wrote to local businesses reminding them that facilitating the activity risks breaching sanctions.
Four Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, are now anchored in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, according to Vortexa and ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Between them they can contain about 8 million barrels of oil.
One, the Veronica, has already received cargo transfers from two smaller tankers and is now taking oil from a third. A second, the Anshun II, has just received a load from a smaller ship. The other two have yet to start.
In early February, Spanish authorities sent a letter to local shipping companies to remind them of the ban on providing fenders for ship-to-ship transfers if it involved Russian oil, or suspected Russian oil, until and all in international waters.
The General Directorate of the Merchant Marine has no jurisdiction to control the activity that takes place in international waters and is unaware that Spanish companies provide fenders for the activity, a spokeswoman said.
Companies in the European Union cannot offer a range of services for the transport of crude oil unless the cargo on board is bought at a Group of Seven maximum price of $60 a barrel or below. It is not clear if this is the case for the oil exchanged in Ceuta.
Ship-to-ship transfers have become an important logistical detail in getting Russian oil to market. About a third of the Urals’ exports were switched to sea last month, according to Vortexa.
Ceuta and Kalamata, a few miles off Greece’s southern coast, have been focal points for the Russian oil trade since December, when the EU banned almost all seaborne imports and joined the Group of Seven in imposing a price limit
Nearly 30 million barrels of Russian Urals have moved between tankers so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ceuta accounts for around 43% of these activities, and Kalamata in Greece almost all the rest. The loads were transported to Asia.
