The European Union, Great Britain and the United States have strengthened their sanctions against the energy sector of the Russian economy and the activities of the so-called «shadow fleet» of the Russian Federation, which ensures the transportation of Russian crude oil by sea. The focus of attention of Brussels, London and Washington was three states that are the largest buyers of crude oil from the Russian Federation, which is transported by tankers. India leads in terms of sea supplies of Russian crude oil. The second major importer is China. In third place is Turkey, which buys Russian oil products to a greater extent, but it also buys crude oil.
Administration of the President of the USA D. Trump is increasingly seeking to prevent India from buying huge amounts of Russian crude oil, as the supplies enable the Kremlin to further strengthen its military capabilities. Thus, in August 2025, the White House doubled tariffs on American imports from India to 50%, citing the country’s record figures in both direct and indirect oil imports from the Russian Federation. On the one hand, almost all of India’s refineries (refineries) have issued public statements that they will certainly comply with the latest restrictions imposed by the EU and the US on Russian hydrocarbons in October 2025. On the other hand, many Indian refineries are outright cunning when they claim that they do not violate the mentioned sanctions and the «price ceiling» for Russian oil introduced by EU member states and the G7. The fact is that the heads of Indian refineries mean that they stop (or have already stopped) receiving oil from Indian ports delivered on those tankers that are included in the sanctions lists of the EU, Great Britain and the USA (unfortunately, these lists are not yet synchronized). However, Russia and its «shadow» tankers use a fairly simple scheme that makes it possible not to formally violate the sanctions of Western countries, but, in fact, to continue delivering crude oil from the Russian Federation by sea.
Tankers «of the shadow fleet», loaded with Russian crude oil, depart from the ports of Barents (Murmansk) and the Baltic Seas (Primorsk and Ust-Luga). They bypass the coast of European states and through the Strait of Gibraltar enter the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Then they go to the coast of Egypt and through the Suez Canal they find themselves in the Red Sea. And finally, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ships with «black gold» on board enter the Indian Ocean. However, they are in no hurry to enter the harbors of Indian ports, where recently they began to carefully compare the names of the arriving tankers with the sanction registers of the EU, Great Britain and the USA. Therefore, «ghost tankers stop in the Gulf of Oman, after which they disable their transponders or use special equipment to broadcast a completely different point of their alleged location.Any tanker – that is under sanctions, is physically or morally obsolete, has an opaque ownership structure, does not have the necessary insurance documents, has not undergone maintenance, has falsely filled out customs and tax declarations, etc. can stop in the waters of this bay without obstacles. In a short time, next to the mentioned «ghost tanker», another vessel – is missing from the sanctions lists and with all the proper documentation. Usually, this «clean» ship comes from Indian ports, but all four Gulf states (Pakistan, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Oman) also participate in this scheme. In the open waters of the bay, Russian oil is transshipped from a «shadow» tanker to a «clean» vessel. After completing this essentially illegal logistics operation, the tanker, without fear of any inspections and customs checks, goes to the coast it needs (mostly Indian ports).
For example, as investigative journalists found out, during July-September 2025, HMEL’s large Guru Gobind Singh refinery in Punjab received a minimum of four batches of Russian oil totaling $280 million, which was transported by sanctioned tankers from Murmansk to the Gulf of Oman. After the successful transshipment of oil in the waters of the bay, «black gold» from the Russian Federation was delivered to the port of Mundra in Gujarat on the west coast of India. In particular, journalists recorded as «a clean» vessel «Samadha», which made four short voyages from the port of Mundra to the middle of the Gulf of Oman during the specified period. Although, according to the ship’s logbook, «Samadha» was supposed to make all these voyages to Oman, the ship never docked in Oman’s ports. Instead, it met with other tankers away from the shore. At the same time (July-September this year), Russian tankers «Belgorod», «Danshui», «Dignity» and «Primorye» – entered the Gulf of Oman, all of which are under United States sanctions. Each time, the tanker coming from Murmansk switched to «shadow» mode, approaching the Gulf of Oman, turning off its transponders for a period of three to six days.
For reference: Guru Gobind Singh Refinery is owned by HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL). HMEL – is a joint venture. One part of it – Mittal Energy is part of ArcelorMittal –, the world’s largest integrated steel and mining group (it’s about a business empire that spans the world). The rest of the joint venture is owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) – to an Indian state-owned company. Each of the two companies mentioned holds a 49% stake. The remaining 2% of shares are in the hands of financial institutions.
In response to the story’s publicity, HMEL initially stated that because the cargo was being delivered on port terms, it had no knowledge of other vessels on which the oil might have been carried, nor of any attempts by the vessels to conceal their location so that some tankers would take the oil from other tankers subject to sanctions. The company added that it complies with Indian law, and all cargo is always subject to due diligence procedures: KYC requirement (know your customer), check for sanctions, study of ship history, prior port permission, etc. However, later on – 10/29/2025, the HMEL company announced that it had decided to completely suspend further purchases of crude oil from the Russian Federation due to new sanctions from Western countries.In turn, the large state-owned Indian Oil refinery said it would not stop buying Russian oil completely, but would avoid purchases from those sea carriers under sanctions.
For its part, Reliance Industries (owned by Asia’s richest man – Mukesh Ambani), which operates the world’s largest oil refinery complex, has promised to adapt all its operations around the refinery in accordance with the new restrictive measures against Russian oil introduced by the EU, Great Britain and the USA.
At the same time, it should be stated that, despite certain successes related to the political and economic pressure of Washington on New Delhi on the issue of transportation and trade of Russian hydrocarbons, absolutely nothing prevents «ghost tankers» from continuing to carry out inconspicuous transshipment of oil in the middle of the Gulf of Oman. It’s just that next time a «clean» tanker with Russian oil will not sail to an Indian port, but to the harbors of, say, the United Arab Emirates.
Posted