Greek naval drills don’t immediately stop Russian oil transfers

Tankers continued switching cargoes of Russian petroleum even as they were forced out of waters off southern Greece when the local navy re-issued a notice that it would carry out exercises in the area. 

The transfers were all already underway when the new notice of exercises was issued, but no new cargo switching has started since. 

At least three cargoes were being moved from one vessel to another when the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service announced a resumption of exercises in the Laconian Gulf on Monday, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The transfers continued as the ships involved moved out of the more northerly of two designated areas into a channel between them.

The oil products tankers Facca and Nargis both loaded partial cargoes of vacuum gasoil, a component in making gasoline and diesel fuel, at the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse earlier this month, shipping information seen by Bloomberg shows. 

Tracking suggests that the Facca’s cargo was being moved onto the Nargis, a process that was completed on Tuesday morning. The Facca is now heading empty back toward the Turkish Straits, the entrance to the Black Sea.

The Seginus was transferring a cargo it had acquired from a Russian-owned tanker in a separate ship-to-ship switch off Port Said onto the Bright Sonia.

That cargo movement had also begun before the new naval exercises were announced. It, too, was completed in the channel between the two areas where the drills will take place.

A third cargo transfer, of Russian fuel oil from the Sea Marine 1 onto the supertanker Sprite, also began in the Laconian Gulf on Sunday. The operation was completed as the ships left the exclusion zone on Monday evening.

The same transfers were also observed by Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com Inc.

Other transfers of non-Russian cargoes also take place in the area and those seem to have followed the same pattern, with switches being completed if they were already underway, but no sign of new ones commencing.

While it’s still early days, tracking data show that no new cargo transfers have begun between ships in the channel between the two designated areas — or in the drill zones — since the latest naval exercises began.

Cargo transfers are not always apparent from vessel tracking data, with infrequent signals sometimes obscuring activity.

The Laconian Gulf, about 110 miles southwest of Athens, has become a vital logistics area for the trade in Russian fuel and crude, allowing cargoes to be switched between vessels for onward shipment to Asian customers. The latest notice of naval exercises runs until June 3.