Ships in Iran, Venezuela shadow trade supplied Russian oil to India

What's common among Snow Lotus, Turaco, Eternal Peace, Thalia 111, and Limo? These are among the 90 or so oil tankers, which transported Russian oil to India in the past few years but were previously involved in the Iranian/Venezuelan shadow trade in sanctioned crude shipments.

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This batch of vessels, which has earned sobriquets of "ghost fleet" and "dark fleet", came handy as Asian countries led by India and China sought alternate ways to secure discounted Russian oil as the US sanctions on Moscow intensified, according to ship tracking agencies and industry sources. That doesn't necessarily mean that these tankers were named and sanctioned by Washington, but they were involved in transporting oil from Venezuela and Iran, said Armen Azizian, a senior oil risk analyst with London-based market intelligence agency Vortexa.

A ban on Iranian oil exports, instituted by former President Donald Trump, still holds while the ban on Venezuelan crude exports was lifted in October for a six-month period ending 18th April. Of the 493 tankers that docked at Indian ports to discharge Russian crude since January 2021, 18 per cent have previously been involved in Iranian/Venezuelan oil trade, Azizian, who authored a report reviewing the impact of sanctions on Russian oil flows in Asia, said.

Not only India but many Asian nations import Russian crude utilising these tankers, replacing tonnage from any loss of vessels from recent sanctions. 29 percent