Since the beginning of the conflict, shipowners in Athens have seen a threefold increase in their trade with Moscow. They are not, however, the only ones.
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| Greek oil tanker Christina |
Greece is increasing its trade with Russia, specifically in the crude oil business, even as governments in Brussels struggle to find a way to put the Russian oil embargo into effect. Greece is one of several EU countries that is increasing its trade with Russia specifically in the crude oil business. Greece, whose fleet possesses the world's largest transport capacity, has taken advantage of Russia's need to move increasing amounts of oil supplies by ship as a result of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which has caused the main oil pipeline to Europe, the Druzhba, to begin reducing the amount of oil flowing through it.
According to information gleaned from the London naval registry Lloyd's List, "it is believed that 4.5 million barrels of crude oil worth about 509 million US dollars have departed the nation per day since the commencement of the war." Following up on that, according to Lloyd's records, 190 tankers departed their lines in the Russian oil ports of Primorsk, Novorosiysk, Ust-Luga, and St. Petersburg during the month of April, with 76 of those vessels flying the Greek flag alone. As a result, according to Die Welt, the Hellenes more than quadrupled their share of Russian oil transport compared to the previous year.
There's nothing wrong with it, mind you. The EU has put restrictions on Russian commercial ships, prohibiting them from accessing European ports. However, it is also true that Brussels has been anxious to exclude the delivery of electricity from this prohibition. This is especially true if the ships are flying flags from countries other than Russia. It was an opportunity that Moscow's oil titans, such as Rosneft, took advantage of in order to carry their goods by sea at a quicker pace than they had before. As demonstrated by the tracks rebuilt by the Russian Tanker Tracking Group, which was sponsored by certain activists in Kiev, an increasing number of tankers are now headed to India, China, and South Korea, among other destinations. In the meanwhile, transportation charges have already increased by 230 percent.
Not only are Greek shipowners pleased with their business, but shipowners all around the globe are as well. It is no coincidence that Cyprus and Malta, along with Greece, are attempting to prevent the EU's sanctions against Russian oil from taking effect: for the governments of Athens, Valletta, and Nicosia, the issue is not so much whether EU member states will lose access to Russian crude oil as it is whether the measure, as envisaged by the Commission proposal, will also include a ban on European oil tankers from transiting through Russian waters.
The oil tanker Nissos, which according to the Russian Tanker Tracking Group is now sailing to India with oil that was loaded at the Russian port of Novorossiysk, would suffer a significant setback if the sanctions were to be lifted immediately. Nonetheless, the activists from Kiev point out that, for the time being, Europe is the primary export market for the Moscow crude oil market, with 110 oil tankers bound or moored at the ports of the Old Continent, of which seven have left in the previous 24 hours.