Tracking Russia's 'Dark' Shadow Ships

Asya Energy's AIS track places it in the Norwegian Sea, at the same time satellite imagery shows it at the ALNG2 plant

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine the West has imposed sanctions on the sale of Russian oil. In an attempt to avoid these sanctions Russia has been operating a shadow fleet of covert oil tankers. The West has been working on strengthening international cooperation to try to limit the use of these covert oil tankers.

SynMax claims that Russia is also developing a 'shadow' fleet of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers. In The Inception of Russia’s LNG Ghost Fleet SynMax maps out how a number of LNG tankers have been using AIS spoofing tactics in order to conceal their visits to Russia's Arctic-2 LNG Export Plant. (ALNG2)

At the same time as their spoofed AIS tracks show them supposedly in the Norwegian Sea a number of LNG tankers have been spotted on satellite imagery by SynMax actually at the ALNG2 plant 800 miles away. These ships are part of a dark fleet assembled by Russia’s Novatek to avoid sanctions imposed on transporting cargoes from ALNG2.

Alongside the AIS spoofing activity mapped by SynMax these ships also show a common pattern of frequent changes in ownership, vessel names and country registrations. All common tactics used by tankers trying to avoid sanctions on the sale of Russian oil and LNG. At least one ship has also been tracked taking the perilous sea route south through the Red Sea. SynMax speculates that "Russia may have negotiated a deal with Yemen’s Houthis ... allowing for “safe passage” through the Bab el Mandeb Strait".