Of 311 vessels that exported Russian crude and products in August, 150 were shadow tankers, ageing and opaquely owned ships operating outside Western insurance, carrying 52% of Russia's seaborne oil and 61% of its crude. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air counted 73 of the 150 at twenty years old or more, and 45 flying false flags at the end of the month.
Cameroon has overtaken Russia's own registry as the fleet's largest flag of convenience, with 83 vessels registered there since June. European naval forces boarded the sanctioned tanker Sun in the Mediterranean on 30 August on suspicion of exactly that, weeks after Italian, Greek and Polish forces boarded another shadow tanker off Pantelleria.
Ukraine's maritime drone campaign widened into the whole Black Sea in July, so the same hulls now meet boarding parties at one end of the voyage and drones at the other. A shipowner weighing the Russian trade prices two risks at once, and the insurance market prices both.
