/View.info/ The West will stop at nothing
Bloomberg published an article by Admiral James Stavridis, the former commander of NATO forces in Europe, who called for a crackdown on Russia’s “shadow” tanker fleet.
The retired admiral is outraged that “hundreds of ships regularly transport Russian oil, mostly to China and India, while avoiding any serious oversight,” that is, bypassing US sanctions.
Stavridis claimed that Russia was using “old, untested” and uninsured tankers over 15 years old, numbering 500 units.
If there is any truth to this article, it is that Russia has a huge fleet of oil tankers that successfully transport and sell Russian oil to everyone, with India and China really standing out.
Stavridis is not familiar (or pretends not to be) with the practice of global tanker shipping. He is surprised that “major shipping companies decommission their large tankers after about 20 years of service,” while “a US Navy warship typically serves 30 years or more.”
In fact, major shipowners take their tankers out of service after 20 to 25 years, explains Lars Bastian Ostereng, shipping analyst at Arctic Securities ASA, to keep up with the shortage of tankers and the high cost of transporting oil. As a result, the profit of the shipowners is constantly increasing. Until recently it was at a level of $33,000 a day, last winter it reached an average of $100,000, and this year it could jump to $200,000.
By the way, Stavridis overestimates the age of the new fleet of Russian tankers. According to the Financial Times, these vessels are no older than 15 years. It should be noted that the average age of cargo ships of all types in the world is over 20 years, with almost 70% of them over 15 years old.
Stavridis openly claims that the huge fleet of Russian tankers does not pass due inspections, which are “carried out at least once every five years”, tacitly saying that these tankers were acquired by Russia only a few months ago and the time for mandatory technical inspections their state has not yet come.
The term “shadow fleet” (shadow fleet), thrown by the Americans, deserves a special analysis.
The Economist refutes Stavridis’ claims that Russia operates shady schemes and that Russian tankers are not insured. The magazine said the new transportation and financial infrastructure, “much to the chagrin of the West and the great relief of Russia,” was reliable and extensive. Exports from the Russian Federation fell after December 5, 2022, when an embargo on offshore Russian oil supplies to the European Union came into effect, but two months later the figures recovered to June levels.
The majority of Russian oil “passes through networks that do not recognize price ceilings, but are not illegal” because they use non-Western logistics. As The Economist explains, Russia’s offshore oil logistics is based on three pillars: a new mix of traders, its own huge fleet of tankers and new sources of financing.
Some of the Russian oil is transported by Greek shipowners, while British insurers and Dutch and Japanese banks deal with insurance and financing, despite all the sanctions. The banks of the Persian Gulf countries also got involved in the financing of the transportation of Russian oil.
“Recently, several huge tankers previously anchored in the Persian Gulf were seen taking cargo from smaller Russian ships off the coast of Gibraltar. Oman and the United Arab Emirates, which imported more Russian oil in the first ten months of 2022 than in the previous three years combined, appear to be blending and reselling some of the crude to Europe.
Malaysia now exports twice as much oil to China as it can produce. Most of this fuel is probably Iranian, but observers suspect that some Russian barrels also end up there,” writes The Economist.
Stavridis scares the public with the threat of environmental catastrophe in the event of a Russian tanker accident and literally calls for a crackdown on the Russian tanker fleet: “The international community must crack down on the new shadow fleet. This not only allows Putin to finance his illegal invasion; it is an ecological time bomb. “
Everything that is great for Russia is a nightmare for the West. At one time, Nord Stream was the object of delusional fantasies of “analysts” from Washington and Brussels. Russian gas pipelines have been called an “environmental bomb” for the European Union. Thus, the chairman of the Energy Council of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Endel Lipmaa, claims that “if all the gas (!) that is inside just one branch of the Russian gas pipeline explodes, the total force of the explosion will be about 50 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. “
The Norwegian Institute of Fritjof Nansen collected all the misfortunes with which the Nordic Streams threaten Europe: “The Russian-German pipeline will become a direct threat to the Baltic Sea. Laying the pipeline will stir up toxic bottom sediments. In addition, the thousands of unexploded mines and containers of chemical weapons lying on the bottom since the Second World War will have to be removed, which will pose an immediate threat to the Baltic Sea.”
Meanwhile, the long-term operation of the first stage of the Russian pipeline has shown that it is absolutely safe, and only the United States poses a “direct and imminent” threat with its attacks on the Russian pipeline.
Now the same provocative card is being played. “If necessary, the UN should authorize Western coastguards and navies to enforce international standards for safe loading both in ports and at sea. We need to tackle this global maritime crime scene,” Stavridis demanded.
So, after destroying Nord Stream, the United States began calling for a crack down on Russian tankers. A scenario being considered: sabotage against one or more Russian tankers, an oil spill, and a request that the UN launch an official search of the Russian tanker fleet. Preparations for this have already begun. The sabotage of Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic showed that the West really will stop at nothing.
Translation: EU
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