Russia Expands Arctic Oil Shadow Fleet With Dark STS Transfers in Sea of Japan

Russia has conducted two dark ship-to-ship (STS) transfers involving oil cargoes that traveled through the Northern Sea Route, highlighting the increasingly complex logistics to move Russian crude to Asian markets via the Arctic.

Satellite analytics company SynMax identified two STS operations involving four oil tankers, according to data and imagery provided to gCaptain. The vessels were detected conducting transfers well offshore between Russia’s Far East and the Korean Peninsula.

The tankers Jagger and Mirabelboth traveled through the Russian Arctic after loading crude earlier this summer. Jagger loaded near Murmansk on July 20, while Mirabel departed Primorsk in the Baltic Sea on