January 21, 2025 [Reuters]- Russian oil shipments via the Baltic Sea fell by about 10% in the last four months of 2024, Finland’s Border Guard said, as EU sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports adopted in June took effect.
Baltic Sea nations are on alert following disruption of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, some of which have been linked to oil tanker activity.
At the same time, the Finnish coast guard is keeping an eye on the phantom fleet that Russia uses to export oil through the Gulf of Finland.
It is made up of old and dilapidated tankers, meaning there is a risk they could spill oil and cause environmental damage in the shallow and fragile Baltic Sea, Finnish Border Guard Chief of Maritime Security Mikko Hirvi told Reuters late last week.
“In the last four or five months of last year there was a decline of about 10% in the amount of oil leaving Russia,” he said, comparing it to the average of the previous two years, when 70 to 80 tankers a week were exporting oil from Russian ports via the Baltic Sea.
Hirvi said the decline began after the EU increased the number of ghost tankers subject to sanctions in June. The United States also tightened its measures this month.
Sanctions could lead to the withdrawal of ghost fleet tankers from service.
“That’s all very well, of course, but on the other hand, at the same time older ships have been introduced into the Baltic Sea traffic. The ships in service are in worse condition than before,” he said, adding that it was too early to tell whether the decline in their numbers would only be temporary.
In October, the Finnish coastguard said it had detected disruptions to satellite navigation signals in the Baltic Sea and that some oil tankers had altered their location data to disguise their visits.
The lack of navigational signals has led to situations where ships have become lost and drifted dangerously close to islands or shallow waters, he said.
On December 30, the coastguard had to secure an oil tanker heading to the Russian port of Primorsk due to engine failure, while Germany secured another tanker adrift off its Baltic coast on January 10.
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