Russia Loads Fourth Sanctioned Sovcomflot Tanker in Snub to West

(Bloomberg) —

Russia loaded a fourth sanctioned tanker owned by state-run Sovcomflot PJSC, testing the resolve of Group of Seven nations who’re attempting to clamp down on the fleet of ships moving Moscow’s oil.

The Viktor Bakaev left the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Sunday, hauling a cargo of about 730,000 barrels of Urals crude, ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. It’s heading to Zhoushan in China.

The ship was named by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in December for breaching a G-7 price cap on Russian oil exports. This is its first cargo loading since.

It’s the fourth such tanker recently put into use by Russia after months sitting idle. The number of vessels subject to sanction by either the US, EU or UK increased to 62 last week when British authorities targeted 11 ships.

The three prior Sovcomflot tankers all appeared carried out transfers at sea out of view of digital vessel-tracking systems, satellite imagery shows.

Sovcomflot didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The more Russia manages to deploy the vessels, the less disruptive sanctions will be.

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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