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Six Russian oil tankers under construction at the Zvezda shipyard in Primorsky Krai have been hit with US sanctions imposed last week. This is the first time that Washington has banned tankers before they have even put to sea, let alone carried sanctioned cargo.
Reuters writes about it.
Sanctions imposed last week have sent oil prices soaring and increased the cost of tanker shipping as the outgoing Biden administration has taken steps to hurt Russian oil exports and thwart Moscow's attempts to build its own fleet.
Six tankers under construction at Zvezda were among the 183 vessels hit. They include the Nursultan Nazarbayev, Alexander Beggrov, Alexey Bogolyubov, and three unnamed tankers: Zvezda 131080, Zvezda 131060, and Zvezda 131040.
According to the text of the sanctions, the buyer of the Alexander Begrov and the Alexey Bogolyubov is Russia’s Sovcomflot, and the buyer of the remaining four is Rosneft’s shipping division, Rosnefteflot. Both buyers are also subject to US sanctions.
The sanctions target the so-called "shadow fleet" that Russia uses to circumvent a price cap imposed by the G7 countries in late 2022, which prohibits insurance and delivery from Western suppliers for Russian oil sold at prices above $60 per barrel.
According to an industry source involved in trading Russian oil, placing ships still under construction under sanctions could make it harder for Russia to justify the costs of completing them.
Russia will face a shortage of tankers to export oil after the sanctions are imposed, as more than 60% of the tankers on the list have called at Russian ports in the past two months, shipping data shows.
The shortage of ships to transport Russian oil has already led to a sharp increase in freight rates around the world.
Zvezda, founded in 2015, is Russia's leading shipyard and the only one in the country capable of building large-tonnage vessels for the oil and gas fleet. The shipyard itself was also hit with US sanctions last week.
Recall that the Russian "shadow fleet" consists of old ships owned by opaque companies registered in countries with low levels of maritime regulation, such as Gabon. Before the imposition of sanctions and the capping of the price of Russian oil at $60 per barrel in December 2022, the fleet was used mainly to circumvent sanctions in countries such as Iran and Venezuela. However, after the imposition of sanctions against Russian oil, its size increased to 17% of the world's oil tanker fleet.