Russia Shifts Oil Transfer Operations to Morocco Amid European Sanctions

Russia was transporting Urals, the country’s flagship oil, as well as other oil products to international markets through Greece. But faced with the new stance of this country, which is trying to limit its trade with the Russians, Moscow has decided to use the port of Nador to transfer its oil from smaller tankers to larger ones, reports Bloomberg.

Last May, the Greek Navy conducted exercises in the Gulf of Laconia, banning all maritime traffic in this area through which Russian tankers transit. A situation that disrupted Russia’s oil transfers, which, to circumvent the problem, decided to transship its oil in an area near Nador, Morocco, the publication informs.

Thus, Urals is transferred from the smaller tanker Serendi, an Aframax class vessel, to Rolin, a very large capacity tanker, off Nador. The tankers Ocean AMZ and Sea Fidelity also transported Russian oil to the Moroccan city. In total, nearly 730,000 barrels of oil were transferred from the Russian port of Primorsk in the Baltic Sea, details the American media.

In March 2023, the presence of the Russian tankers Crius, Anshun II and Nobel had been reported off the Moroccan coast. To circumvent the international sanctions it is facing after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has started to transfer its oil in an area off Ceuta, raising concerns from the Spanish authorities who had even opened an investigation into the illegal entry of Russian diesel into their country.