The Asya Energy carrier, which loaded a cargo at the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2
The rise of the so-called dark or shadow fleet has rewired the world's energy system. To ensure the flow of oil from Russia and Iran in the face of the West's sanctions, new networks of traders and shipowners have emerged in the past few years, many of them centered on Dubai.
Their methods? Acquire tankers often older, cheaper ones and use opaque webs of shell companies, ship-to-ship transfers and games with tracking technology to obscure the origins of the oil and find a willing buyer, most often in Asia.
It's worked. The flows of Russian and Iranian oil have continued unabated and, importantly, the prices those cargoes are fetching have narrowed the gap with global benchmarks.
The dark fleet is becoming bigger and more sophisticated even as Western officials try to keep it in check.
Today, my colleagues Ben Bartenstein, Jack Wittels and Archie Hunter have published an investigation into one Dubai-based network, said to be steered by intensely private Iranian businessman Hossein Shamkhani, whose father is a prominent official in Tehran.
Shamkhani's very profitable rise shows just how significant some of these new players have become.
The Asya Energy carrier, which loaded a cargo at the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2.
Dark fleet tactics are also spreading beyond oil into liquefied natural gas. Anna Shiryaevskaya and Stephen Stapczynski have reported in recent weeks how Russia appears to have acquired control of a clutch of LNG tankers, enabling exports from a sanctioned project.
Meanwhile, sanctions aren't succeeding in their goal of eating into Russian and Iranian export revenues. Enforcement has become a cat-and-mouse game, where authorities often find the best results come from sanctioning individual ships because the ultimate beneficiaries are so obscure.
Without a change in the geopolitical weather that nobody expects, the dark fleet will remain a settled and important part of the energy world and will keep making many people rich.
Will Kennedy, Bloomberg News
Their methods? Acquire tankers often older, cheaper ones and use opaque webs of shell companies, ship-to-ship transfers and games with tracking technology to obscure the origins of the oil and find a willing buyer, most often in Asia.
It's worked. The flows of Russian and Iranian oil have continued unabated and, importantly, the prices those cargoes are fetching have narrowed the gap with global benchmarks.
The dark fleet is becoming bigger and more sophisticated even as Western officials try to keep it in check.
Today, my colleagues Ben Bartenstein, Jack Wittels and Archie Hunter have published an investigation into one Dubai-based network, said to be steered by intensely private Iranian businessman Hossein Shamkhani, whose father is a prominent official in Tehran.
Shamkhani's very profitable rise shows just how significant some of these new players have become.
The Asya Energy carrier, which loaded a cargo at the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2.
Dark fleet tactics are also spreading beyond oil into liquefied natural gas. Anna Shiryaevskaya and Stephen Stapczynski have reported in recent weeks how Russia appears to have acquired control of a clutch of LNG tankers, enabling exports from a sanctioned project.
Meanwhile, sanctions aren't succeeding in their goal of eating into Russian and Iranian export revenues. Enforcement has become a cat-and-mouse game, where authorities often find the best results come from sanctioning individual ships because the ultimate beneficiaries are so obscure.
Without a change in the geopolitical weather that nobody expects, the dark fleet will remain a settled and important part of the energy world and will keep making many people rich.
Will Kennedy, Bloomberg News
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