Maritime Export of Russian Crude Oil from Black Sea Ports in March 2026

The Monitoring Group of the BlackSeaNews
and Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies

The Monitoring Group of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies and BlackSeaNews reports on the results of its own monitoring of maritime export of Russian crude oil from the Black Sea and Azov Sea in March 2026.

In March 2026, 38 tankers exported crude oil from Russian ports in the Black and Azov Seas. They transported a total of about 5 million tons.[1]

Importing Countries

The crude oil was delivered to the ports of 13 countries. The countries with the largest volumes of imports of Russian crude oil from the Black Sea can be found in Chart 2.

Flags

Of the 38 vessels carrying Russian crude oil from the Black Sea, 9 operated under the flag of Liberia, 5 vessels performed voyages under the flag of Malta. One tanker performed voyage under the false flag of Madagascar.

The distribution by flag state is presented in Chart 3.

Shipowners

More than half of the tankers transporting Russian crude oil were owned by companies registered in Greece. Further details are provided in Chart 4.

Sanctions

Sanctions have been imposed on 13[2] out of 38 tankers. See Chart 5 for details.

Details of the voyages[3]

[1] Export volumes of crude oil and petroleum products are presented in the charts using the DWT (deadweight) metric. Deadweight refers to a vessel’s total carrying capacity in tons, and includes the combined weight of cargo, fuel, oil, technical and drnking water, passengers with baggage, crew, and provisions. When analyzing shipments of large volumes of crude oil and petroleum products, this convention does not materially affect the results. Even for tankers with a deadweight of 100,000–150,000 tons, the weight of fuel, water, provisions, and a relatively small crew amounts to only a few hundred tons and therefore does not significantly influence the analysis.

[2] The database contains information on sanctions imposed by Ukraine, the EU, the UK, the US and Canada. Sanctions from other countries were not analyzed.

[3] Information in the database is partly limited for unregistered users. If you are not registered, you will not be able to see information about voyages that were completed more than 60 days before the viewing date by clicking on the links.

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​​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.