A UK-SANCTIONED suezmax tanker has loaded a crude cargo from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and is sailing for Port Said, Egypt, with the voyage to reveal whether designated vessels can skirt Russia’s oil price cap.

The Cook Island-flagged suezmax tanker Fighter Two (IMO: 9296391) sailed on July 24 from Novorossisyk after loading a cargo of CPC Blend crude, according to Vortexa, a London-based data analytics provider.

The CPC Blend grade comprises crude pipelined via the 1,500-km long Caspian Pipeline Consortium and produced in Kazakhstan, a country which is not subject to Western sanctions. Russian crude, which is subject to export restrictions, can be added to the pipeline, and if so that makes the cargo subject to sanctions.

It is not known whether the CPC blend on Fighter Two is blended with Russian crude.

Nevertheless, the loading of this shipment and prior movements of related, sanctioned tankers in the past week signal that Russian oil traders are embracing logistical challenges as they seek to keep oil flowing while regulators across Europe, US and UK accelerate enforcement and compliance.

Fighter Two was one of 11 tankers directly sanctioned by the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on June 18 for breaching the G7 oil price cap on Russia’s oil and shipping sector, imposed more than 19 months ago.

During June, EU27 and UK sanctioned nearly 30 Russia-trading tankers separate to US measures that began ramping up in October. This was the first time governments from both entities have directly designated ships.

The countries aimed to mirror the successful strategy of the US, where designated tankers have been unable to trade, effectively sidelining dedicated tonnage that governments say are part of Putin’s “shadow fleet”.

Fighter Two is signalling its destination as Port Said, where it previously undertook a ship-to-ship transfer of 1m barrels of CPC Blend to tanker Dynamik Trader (IMO: 9286657) on July 14.

Just days later both Fighter Two and Dynamik Trader were among the 11 tankers sanctioned by the UK. Dynamik Trader, also a suezmax tanker, is now sailing for Sikka, India, and due to arrive with four days.

Ship-to-ship transfers of Russia-loaded cargoes at Port Said anchorage area are commonplace, and Fighter Two’s stated destination suggests that it may also transfer its cargo to another vessel here.

Such a step will test the effectiveness of UK sanctions and indicate whether such a workaround is possible if the receiving vessel is able to then transport the cargo via the Suez Canal to the ultimate destination in China or India.

None of the other EU27 and UK sanctioned the ships have been noted loading a cargo, vessel-tracking shows, although many that were already loaded at the time of the announcement are still sailing laden to their final buyers.

That includes the 25 tankers owned by Russian government-controlled Sovcomflot, which have been targeted by all three regulators.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.

Download our explainer on the different risk profiles of the dark fleet here