Russia’s shadow-fleet kingpin is back in business

. Eyyub was pitted against a trader from Pakistan, Murtaza Lakhani, according to people familiar with their operations.As Eyyub, Lakhani and a few other traders competed, the price of Russian oil recovered. Rosneft’s crude found new buyers, particularly in India.But Eyyub muscled out his rivals.

He outbid Lakhani’s firms and others in auctions at Rosneft’s Moscow headquarters, and got close to Sechin.A Russian speaker who grew up in Soviet times, Eyyub spent time at the Putin ally’s hunting lodge and got invited to his birthday parties. They vacationed together in the Maldives, some of the people familiar with his operations said.Eyyub, based in a Moscow office tower, flew around on a pair of private jets procured from an Estonian businessman.

He would go to the Middle East, Africa and India to strike deals to sell Russian oil that previously went to Europe.Rosneft officials pushed for one of Eyyub’s traders to become CEO of a refinery in India that the Russian producer co-owned, said people familiar with the matter.Eyyub eventually took over the rest of Lakhani’s business, including shadow-fleet ships active in Venezuela, some of the people familiar with his operations said. He gained more Russian oil and contracts to trade Iraqi crude, and added to his stake in Sechin’s flagship Arctic exploration project.A Rosneft spokesman said the company doesn’t permit use of a shadow fleet, which he said would pose environmental and safety risks and violate rules of navigation.

He said none of the companies the Journal named in written questions, including Coral, was a Rosneft contractor.Pressure built on Moscow’s oil complex last fall with U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and fellow producer Lukoil.