The Real State of Russian Maritime Oil Exports from Russian Ports in 2025, Part II: The Black Sea

Report by the Monitoring Group of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies

This report focuses primarily on Russia's maritime exports of crude oil, which account for approximately three-quarters of the country's seaborne oil exports. On average, crude oil and petroleum products are exported at a ratio of 3:1.
All findings presented in this report are based on the Russian Oil Tanker Tracking Database (hereinafter, “the Database”), developed by the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies in 2025.

Part I of the report, “The Real State of Russian Maritime Oil Exports from Russian Ports in 2025” can be found here.

Before examining Black Sea exports in detail, however, let’s briefly recap the main characteristics of Russia’s maritime crude oil exports in 2025.

Destination Countries for Russian Crude Oil from Black Sea Ports

In 2025, Russian crude oil shipped from Black Sea ports was delivered to 23 countries plus the EU member states.

The five largest destinations accounted for 88.3% of the total: India (40.2%), EU countries combined (19.1%), Türkiye (10.6%), Singapore (10.0%), and China (8.4%).

We recognize that our claim that 10.1 million tons reached EU ports is significant and warrants an explanation — both from us and from the EU countries concerned. We therefore carefully verified our findings concerning possible embargo violations.

Number of Tankers that Delivered Russian Crude Oil from the Black Sea Ports to the EU

Our monitoring identified 86 tanker voyages transporting Russian crude oil from Russian Black Sea ports either directly to EU ports or to ship-to-ship (STS) transshipment areas located within or adjacent to EU territorial waters.

Direct Deliveries to EU Ports

64 direct voyages delivered approximately 8.4 million tonnes to EU ports:

Romania — 37 (4,294,316 dwt)

• RO MID Midia – 33; dwt 3,714,069
• RO CND Constanța – 4; dwt 580,247

Italy — 11 (1,712,306 dwt)

• IT TRS Trieste = 8; dwt 1,235,589
• IT AOI Ancona = 1; dwt 158,513
• IT CAG Cagliari = 1; dwt 159,638
• IT SPA Santa Panagia = 1; dwt 158,566

GR Greece = 3; dwt 385,222

• GR PIR Piraeus = 1; dwt 115,618
• GR PME Pachi = 1; dwt 156,669
• GR SKG Thessaloniki = 1; dwt 112,935

Additional direct deliveries included:

• HR OMI Omisalj = 7; dwt 1,105,920
• BG BOJ Burgas = 4; dwt 650,223
• NL RTM Rotterdam = 1; dwt 157,543
• FR FOS Fos-sur-Mer = 1; dwt 163,111
• The complete list of all voyages and tankers referenced in this report, together with the associated data, is available upon request.

Under current EU and G7 sanctions, exports from Russian ports to the EU are permitted only for Kazakh crude oil.

However, the lack of reliable official statistics and widespread GPS spoofing in the Novorossiysk area create opportunities to pass off Russian crude as Kazakh crude by using falsified certificates of origin.

22 voyages to STS transfer locations = 1.67 million tonnes of crude oil:

• STS CY LMS ANCH = 14; dwt 897,066 (Cyprus)
• STS FPSO 9889162 = 2; dwt 318,318
• STS GR KIT EAST = 1; dwt 34,985
• STS GR MJT ANCH = 2; dwt 189,130
• STS GR PYL ANCH = 1; dwt 34,985 (Greece)
• STS IT AOI ANCH = 1; dwt 149,999 (Italy)
• STS RO CND ANCH OUT = 1; dwt 47,199 (Romania)
• The complete list of all voyages and tankers referenced in this report, together with the associated data, is available upon request.

#	Country/region	Voyages	Deadweight, t	%
1	India	155	21 195 677	40.2%
2	EU	86	10 140 323	19.1%
3	Türkiye	57	5 591 238	10.6%
4	Singapore	44	5 461 603	10.0%
5	China	35	4 473 462	8.4%
6	Egypt	11	1 195 507	2.3%
7	Saudi Arabia	10	1 047 762	2.0%
8	United Arab Emirates (Fujairah)	9	923 847	1.7%
9	Syria	5	663 889	1.3%
11	Malaysia	5	502 525	1.0%
10	Georgia	3	377 410	0.7%
12		2	228 082	0.4%
13	Brunei	1	163 128	0.3%
14	Oman	1	159 081	0.3%
15		1	158 574	0.3%
16	South Korea	1	151 693	0.3%
17	Indonesia	1	115 026	0.2%
18	Taiwan	1	105 475	0.2%
19	Tunisia	2	100 257	0.2%
20	Togo	2	97 513	0.2%
21	Trinidad and Tobago	1	70 426	0.1%
22	Senegal	1	49 000	0.1%
23	Libya	1	47 024	0.1%
24	Lebanon	1	34 985	0.1%
	Total	436	53 053 507	100.0

Who Transported Russian Crude Oil from Black Sea Ports

The monitoring recorded a total of 436 tanker voyages by 259 individual tankers:

35 voyages (8.0%) vessels operated in the Black Sea without a flag. Of these, 22 (5.0%) used fraudulent flag registrations.

On 101 voyages (23.9%), the tankers were listed on the official Paris MoU and/or Tokyo MoU Port State Control blacklists at the time. These vessels were registered under flag states associated with significantly lower standards of technical oversight and regulatory compliance.

There has been considerable speculation about the age of these tankers. Our 2025 data show the following:

• 131 voyages (30.0%) were made by tankers built since 2010 (up to 15 years old);
• 197 voyages (45.2%) were made by tankers built between 2005 and 2009 (16–20 years old);
• 97 voyages (22.2%) were made by tankers built between 2000 and 2004 (21–25 years old);
• 11 voyages (2.5%) were made by tankers built between 1993 and 1999 (more than 25 years old).

By the time of their final voyage in 2025, 73 of the 259 tankers had been sanctioned by one or more jurisdictions:

• 57 by the European Union;
• 59 by the United Kingdom;
• 43 by Canada;
• 18 by the United States.

Together, these tankers accounted for 108 of the 436 voyages, or 24.8% of all crude oil shipments from Russian Black Sea ports. Of these voyages:

• 79 involved vessels sanctioned by the European Union;
• 87 involved vessels sanctioned by the United Kingdom;
• 63 involved vessels sanctioned by Canada;
• 24 involved vessels sanctioned by the United States.

All of those voyages took place after the vessels had already been sanctioned by the EU, UK, US or Canada, while none of the ships were owned by European companies. Instead, they were linked to entities registered in:

• China — 37 voyages;
• UAE and Russia — 20;
• India — 16;
• Offshore jurisdictions — 15;
• Azerbaijan — 11;
• Türkiye — 6;
• Vietnam — 1;
• Kazakhstan — 1;
• Unknown — 1.

Who Transported Russian Crude Oil from the Black and the Baltic Seas

Shipowner’s Country	Black Sea	%		%
EU+	197*	45,2	461	45,1%
China	54	12,4	143	12,9%
Azerbaijan	26	6,0	128	11,5%
UAE	41	9,4	105	9,5%
Russia	12	2,8	18	1,6%
UAE+Russia	53	12,2	123	11,1%
India	33	7,6	84	7,6%
Türkiye	49	11,2	50	4,5%
Other**	20	4,6	57	5,1%
Offshore jurisdictions***	21	4,8	65	5,9%
Total	436	100,0	1111	100,0

*The 197 voyages attributed to EU+ involved tankers for which at least two of the three key companies—the Registered Owner, Ship Manager, and ISM Manager—were registered in the EU or UK. This includes the following combinations: Registered Owner + Ship Manager; Registered Owner + ISM Manager; Ship Manager + ISM Manager.
(See the Table Distribution of Crude Oil Tanker Voyages from Russian Black Sea Ports by Shipowning Companies in the European Union and the United Kingdom below)

The Breakdown by Country of Registration of the Companies in the Other and Offshore Jurisdictions Categories

Other **	Companies from Vietnam and Indonesia: 20	4,6%	Shipowners from Kuwait, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nigeria, Japan and Libya	5,1%
Offshore Countries***	Companies from Antigua and Barbuda, Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands, and Seychelles: 20	4,8%	Shipowners from Antigua & Barbuda, Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius and Seychelles.	5,9%

 

Distribution of Crude Oil Tanker Voyages from Russian Black Sea Ports by Shipowner Country: EU and UK

	Country	Registered owner* country	Ship manager** country	ISM manager*** country
1	GR Greece	154 (85,6%)	164 (88,2%)	159 (83,7%)
2	DE Germany	18 (10%)	18 (9,7%)	28 (14,7)
3	CY Cyprus	4	1	-
4	MT Malta	2	1	2
5	HR Croatia	1	1	1
6	GB United Kingdom	1	1	-
	Total	180	186	190

*Registered Owner is the person or entity that is on the government records as being the legal owner of certain property, such as real estate or a motor vehicle, as well as ships. The registered owner of a property in question is normally presumed, sometimes conclusively, to be the legal owner of the property and is said to “hold the title” or is “registered on the title”.
**Ship Manager — the company that operates the ship daily.
***ISM Manager — the company responsible for implementing the International Safety Management Code aboard the ship. This is the company referenced in the ship’s Safety Management Certificate.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Nearly half (45.2%) of all Russian crude oil shipments from Black Sea ports in 2025 were carried by tankers owned and/or managed by companies from six European countries: Greece, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia, and the United Kingdom. Greek companies accounted for 85.6% of registered owners, while German companies accounted for 10%.

Our findings from both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea suggest that the concept of a so-called “shadow fleet” does not accurately reflect the reality of Russia’s maritime oil exports.
Consequently, efforts to combat Russia’s shadow fleet will remain ineffective unless EU and UK companies are directly prohibited from providing maritime transportation services for Russian oil.

* * *

​​This publication was produced with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation's Europe and the World Program. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the International Renaissance Foundation.