This Thursday and for a couple of days, a Greek ship called Velos Diamantis, registered in Greece by Mantis Maritime and originating from Russia, is south of Gran Canaria. A Chinese-flagged fuel cargo ship has also been south of Gran Canaria, although it has moved to the coast of Mauritania, as Maspalomas24H was able to confirm.
What are you doing in international waters south of Gran Canaria? exchange crude oil with other ships to send it to Europe. The Black Sea Institute for Strategic Studies monitoring group and BlackSeaNews, paid for by Buselas, report on the results of their own monitoring of violations of the EU and G7 embargo on seaborne imports of Russian oil products from the ports of the Black and Azov Seas to the EU countries.
Already last December the presence of a ship with Russian fuel was confirmed and this Thursday there is another.
Technically it is legal because it operates in international waters, although another matter is where the VAT on the operation is paid. In February 2024, 30 violations of the EU embargo on maritime imports of Russian petroleum products (excluding crude oil) from the Black Sea were recorded.
3 direct voyages with oil products were made from Russian ports to ports of EU countries. In February 2024, 101.651 tons of Russian oil products were delivered directly to the ports of EU countries and 1.179.572 tons were sent to the transshipment point.
A total of 2024 tons of Russian oil products were delivered to the EU in February 1.281.223 in violation of the embargo, compared to 1.090.257 tons in January 2024 and 551.893 tons in December 2023. Three direct trips were made to countries of EU oil tankers owned by shipowners from Norway (2) and Azerbaijan. 27 trips were made to the transshipment point on tankers belonging to shipowners registered in countries that never fly the Spanish flag.