As sanctions loomed, sales of ageing crude carriers suddenly soared, bought by operators unknown to the market

It has been called Russia’s “ghost”, “shadow”, or “dark” fleet. Nearly 500 ships, many of them old tankers with murky ownership and obscure insurers, could be playing an integral role in moving Russian crude to China and other ports in Asia, because of a G7 price cap meant to keep foreign-currency oil revenues out of the Kremlin’s hands.

Often the ships use tactics designed to hide their location or the origin of the crude carried from Russian ports, which may later be refined in India and other countries and even re-exported to the western countries sanctioning the Kremlin.