Tankers under the Russian flag and sanctions walked through the British waters of the English Channel

A group of Russian tankers, which carries more than 300 thousand tons of oil and is under sanctions, passed the most dangerous part of the English Channel for it - the territorial waters of Great Britain, where the transport corridor passes and captured the Smyrtos tanker in mid—June. British ships escorted by tankers are not seen. They may have disabled the transponders.

As EADaily wrote the day before, three tankers Provider, Nasledie and Transformer are heading with a cargo of oil worth more than $ 100 million to the English Channel and this will be the third passage of Russian vessels under sanctions after the Smyrtos tanker was seized in mid-June.

On the morning of July 10, three tankers traveling from Baltic Primorsk to Asia have already crossed a third of the strait, 100 miles, according to AIS vessels. And passed the most dangerous part of the way. At the narrowest point of the strait, it is divided only into the territorial waters of Great Britain and France, and the ships following from the east are obliged to pass through British waters along the established transport corridor.

Apparently, the tankers passed the site without incident and now they have to travel another 200 miles already in the international waters of the English Channel to enter the Atlantic Ocean. At the current speed of almost 17 knots, the vessels will complete the rest of the journey in about 17 hours.

In mid-June, the British Navy seized the tanker Smyrtos in its territorial waters of the English Channel. Since sanctions cannot be a reason, London is putting pressure on Cameroon to deprive the vessel of the flag, British media write. In addition, the British authorities plan to sell oil.

In this situation, the sanctioned tankers have bypassed the strait and are going around the UK from the north. Through the English Channel, vessels under restrictions made two passes after the capture of Smyrtos. This was done by tankers Forwarder, Gefest and Pluto.

Each time they were accompanied by ships of the British Navy. Perhaps they were stopped by the presence of Russian warships. As well as the fact that all sanctioned vessels passing through the strait are registered in Russia and go under the Russian flag, which is still a rarity for ships of the shadow fleet, but a strong argument to refrain from seizure. Most of the ships of the shadow fleet sail under foreign flags or without them at all and do not formally belong to Russia has nothing to do with it.

This time, three tankers were met before approaching the English Channel by a patrol aircraft of the British Coast Guard. After that, however, the escort of a group of tankers by Navy ships was not noticed. Maybe they turned off the transponders.

It is not known whether the Russian tankers are going on their own and the Russian flag turned out to be enough or whether they are again accompanied by a Russian ship. It is known that the countries The EU is becoming more aggressive towards sanctioned tankers that transport Russian oil. The European Union is trying to reduce Russia's export revenues, but it is mainly affected by world oil prices and American restrictions.

As EADaily reported, oil exports from Russia continues to grow and more and more supplies of oil and petroleum products from the Baltic region are transferred to tankers that are not under sanctions, and they freely cross the English Channel. At the same time countries The EU and the UK continue to look for reasons to seize sanctioned tankers. Since sanctions cannot be a legal reason, they are looking for vessels without a flag, which formally have nothing to do with They don't have Russia.

France is more active than other EU countries in seizing shadow fleet tankers with Russian oil, but also releases them more often — after paying a fine. In fact, the French "sanctions" have become a payment for the passage of Europe. Not critical yet — $ 3 per barrel.