11th Set of Sanctions Against Shadow Fleet
To circumvent the economic sanctions against Russia, a shadow fleet has emerged. Its aim is simple: to continue trading hydrocarbons without being subject to sanctions. To achieve this, old ships are used for illegal transshipments.
To combat this shadow fleet, the European Union has just adopted the 11th set of restrictive measures against Russia.
From July 24, access to EU ports and locks will be denied to all vessels engaged in ship-to-ship transfers.
If the competent authorities suspect that a vessel is in breach of the ban on importing Russian crude oil and oil products transported by sea to the EU, or that it is carrying Russian crude oil or oil products purchased at a price above the ceiling agreed by the price-cap coalition, which prevents the inflationary impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, access to EU ports and locks will be denied to all vessels carrying out ship-to-ship transfers.
The same ban will apply to ships whose competent authorities have strong grounds for suspecting that they are disabling their automatic identification systems (AIS) or falsifying the data issued when transporting Russian crude oil and petroleum products, in violation of agreements, EU regulations and EU legislation.
