Why 10 Shadow fleets of Russia got sanctioned by UK Government on 11th Sept 2025

Recently on 11th Sept, UK government sanctioned 10 ships of the Russia’s Shadow Fleet

What is Shadow Fleet – These are ships / oil tanker which are tough to track, since the names and details are changed and are used to transport Russian Oil and Gas to other countries. These vessels are used to evade sanctions, they operate with limited insurance, they have less access to ports and can also do ship to ship transfer – a tactical way to avoid being tracked.

Reasons for sanctions - In 2022 after Russia Ukraine war started, the West banned the Exports of Russian oil to reduce its revenue but there was risk of sudden oil spike thus the G7 nations created an oil price cap mechanism in order to control the oil exports from Russia stating that oil exported by ocean could be sold at a discount rate that is at USD 60 per barrel which was approx. USD 15-20 lower than the actual price, but this could not stand for long as Russia took new measures of oil exports through the shadow fleet oil tankers which are not marked thus cannot be tracked unlike other vessels.

Months back on 10th January 2025 US government put sanctions on more than 200 entities and individual related to Russian Energy Sector which includes 183 oil tankers (identified as blocked properties) and two insurance companies of Russia, these sanctions came just before the ending of Biden government.

These sanctions are meant to create pressure on Russia to stop the war with Ukraine, since presently the oil exports share approx. 15 -20% to Russia’s GDP.

Presently there is news in the market that UK government has blacklisted 70 Russian Shadow fleet but as per the website of UK Government, only 10 ships were blacklisted on 11th Sept 2025.