Shadow fleet sanctions tighten shipping race for Iran and Russia
According to data from the International Maritime Organization, a UN agency, over a thousand container ships making up the so-called shadow fleet have been subjected to Western sanctions since the end of last year. This has left Russia, Iran, and Venezuela competing for the vessels not included on the sanctions lists.
Following additional sanctions from the United States and the European Union on tankers transporting Russian crude oil, the fleet of available ships has significantly decreased. According to Bloomberg, Iran has the most significant difficulty selling its crude oil.
In 2024, Tehran used approximately 150 tankers to transport its crude oil. However, over 100 of these have been added to the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control list of sanctioned ships.
Problem for Iran, Moscow has the advantage
This presents a significant issue for Iran, which commits China, which signed a contract to deliver 25 million barrels of crude oil. However, the increased number of tankers added to the sanctions list has led to Tehran selling less of this resource. Deliveries have decreased to around 1.5 million barrels per day, compared to 1.76 million per day in November last year. Bloomberg predicted two days ago that by May, exports could fall to a third of the current level.
Russia has an advantage in this race for container ships, attracting carriers with higher freight rates. Countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, the Union of the Comoros, Gabon, and the landlocked Eswatini primarily benefit from this opportunity. These countries have noted significant increases in ships flying their flags over the past twelve months.
Fewer available tankers
The global fleet of tankers consists of about 14,000 ships, including 3,000 crude oil tankers and 11,000 for products and chemicals. Since the end of last year, the number of tankers subjected to sanctions by the USA, EU, and the G7 group of countries has exceeded a thousand.
The American corporation S&P Global Market Intelligence, which specialises in financial analyses, revealed in its February report that over 800 of these vessels do not have confirmed insurance.
Furthermore, the average age of sanctioned ships is 21 years, which is about eight years older than the global average. This does not hinder profit-driven African companies managing these flags in any way.
