The Ghost Fleet Helping Russia Evade Sanctions and Pursue Its War in Ukraine
insurance industry," he added. Ships owned by the company have loaded oil in recent months at the port of Kozmino on Russia’s Pacific coast, where petroleum has consistently been sold at prices above the cap, according to shipping figures gathered by commodity-data provider Kpler and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company continued to ship oil from the port even after the Treasury Department issued a global warning in April against loading oil at Kozmino and other ports in the Russian far east due to violations of the price cap, which prompted some mainstream shipping companies to stop exporting oil from the terminal.
Some of those that aren’t listed are continuing to ship oil from the terminal, among them another Turkish shipper, Imza Marine. It didn’t respond to a request for comment. One of Beks’s largest ships, the crude oil tanker Beks Sun, made a port call at Russia’s state-owned Transneft oil pipeline terminal in Kozmino in July and then set sail for India, shipping data show.
Most of Beks’s shipping business goes to and from Russia, often transporting oil to China, India and other buyers. “We are very cautious in complying with [the] price cap mechanism," said Ersoz in a text message. He didn’t respond to a question about how the company had shipped oil from Kozmino at cap-compliant rates.
The net result, however, is that because of lower prices and this wide range of shippers, Russia has managed to expand its share in some of the world’s largest oil markets over the course of the war, changing the way the global energy supply works. It briefly overtook Saudi Arabia as China’s largest supplier in April. Now the two are roughly even, with analysts expecting Russia to pull ahead again in the coming
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