According to Bloomberg, a floating Russian oil base shifted to a new location in the Mediterranean Sea after the Greek Navy began conducting war drills in the Laconian Gulf in May.

Approximately 110 miles southwest of Athens, in the Laconian Gulf, the Greek Navy started war games in May to upset a Russian tanker’s “floating oil base,” which was being used for ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil and related products. Currently, these tankers are moving STS transfers to a different area of the Mediterranean.

According to Bloomberg, STS transfers are taking place close to Nador, which is located near the eastern end of Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, by tankers transporting Russia’s Urals. This follows last month’s forced evacuation of tankers from the Laconian Gulf by the Greek Navy.

According to Bloomberg shipping data, many tankers are carrying out STS transfers off the coast of Morocco.

The Rolin, a Very Large Crude Carrier, or VLCC, is receiving Urals crude from a smaller tanker Serendi off the Moroccan city, the data show. It’s is the first time that the so-called ship-to-ship transfer of the grade has taken place there.

The Serendi is an Aframax-class ship. Two others – the Ocean AMZ and Sea Fidelity – have also arrived. All three loaded about 730,000 barrels of Urals from Russia’s Baltic sea port of Primorsk last month.

-BBG

BBG: Ship-to-ship transfer of Russian Urals crude by tankers off Morocco

The majority of STS Russian shipments arrive in Asia thousands of miles away. However, the Black Sea Group claims that because of Brussels’ subpar sanction administration, some of it ended up at ports in Europe:

“68% of the oil was brought to the Laconian Gulf in Greece for transshipment, while the rest was directly exported to the EU ports amid poor sanctions management,” researcher Bohdan Ben wrote in a note. 

The ultimate objective of the West is to destroy Russia’s energy complex. The most important lesson to be learned from all of this is Moscow’s ongoing resilience, regardless of the actions of the Greek Navy, the US, and the EU imposing sanctions on Russian crude exports, or the Ukrainian military using kamikaze drones to target Russian facilities.

Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that in an interview, Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the West has tried to ‘weaponize’ Russian oil for ideological reasons.