Putin's "shadow Fleet" Will Be Stripped Of Its Panamanian Flags.
- 4.08.2025, 20:46
The Panamanian measures will affect a substantial part of the Kremlin's shadow fleet.
Panamanian authorities have announced a tougher commercial ship registration policy to combat the "shadow fleet".
According to Interfax, citing a statement by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA), the country will stop registering oil tankers older than 15 years from August.
In addition, every three months the PMA will conduct additional inspections to ensure compliance with certification requirements for vessels that fly the flag of Panama, the world's second largest commercial ship registrar.
The Panamanian authorities' measures will affect a substantial part of the Kremlin's shadow fleet, which Dryad Global estimates to number about 600 vessels by early 2025 and has increased sixfold since the war in Ukraine.
The average age of tankers that carry Russian oil to circumvent sanctions is 20-25 years, which is almost double the figure for similar vessels worldwide (13 years).
At least a third of Russia's "shadow" tankers are vessels over 20 years old, experts at the Finnish center SREA estimate. Often these are tankers intended for scrapping, which Russian companies bought from Western shipowners, including Greek ship tycoons.
As a rule, such tankers do not have insurance on the terms of "protection and indemnity". This means that in the event of a possible accident, including an oil spill, the cost of cleaning up the consequences will have to be borne by the countries in whose waters the disaster occurred, CREA points out.
After numerous sanctions packages, more than 400 tankers - half of the total deadweight of the Russian "shadow fleet" - have been blacklisted by the United States, the European Union and Britain, experts of the Institute of Energy and Finance estimate.
The majority of these vessels are indeed "switched off" from maritime oil trade, the IEF emphasizes. However, this does not affect export volumes, as Russian grades are cheaper than the price ceiling of the G7 countries ($60 per barrel), which means that they can be transported by Western tanker companies.
According to CREA, a total of 435 tankers exported oil from Russian ports in June. Of these, 153 belonged to the shadow fleet.