Nearly 900 maritime companies were set up in 2022 with ties to Russia that have helped to boost its oil exports to a post-invasion high despite western sanctions, according to new research.
The 864 new companies include 87 that contain 100 vessels that were previously Russian-owned or flagged, according to a paper by S&P Global Intelligence.
The research shows that more than a quarter, or 23, of those companies were set up in the United Arab Emirates, which has emerged as a major ship-owning alternative to the European Union.
Shipping, insurance and finance services with no link to the EU or G7 countries are not bound by the oil price cap and have benefitted from bumper freight rates for hauling Russian oil.
Turkey, Singapore and Hong Kong were also identified as key ownership centres of former Russian-flagged vessels. The other 777 companies have vessels in their fleets that have made port calls to Russia since 5 December 2022, the start of the EU’s ban on Russian crude imports.
“These new, primarily, tanker owners have created fleets of vessels with direct and indirect links to Russian entities while retaining a general level of opaque ownership information,” S&P said in the report.
“These new owners have helped Russian oil continue to flow when more traditional and conventional fleet owners exited the Russian market.”
Fractal Marine Shipping, headquartered in Geneva but registered in Dubai, has emerged as one of the fastest-growing companies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, an event that has shaken-up shipping markets and sent profits soaring for tanker operators.
The company has amassed a fleet of 26 tankers with a market value of $845m, according to the database of valuation platform VesselsValue. Dubai’s Wanta Shipping has become the technical manager for 27 vessels, according to the Equasis database, all but one of them joining in 2023.
The largest of the new fast-emerging shipowners, Mumbai-based Gatik Ship Management, has 61 vessels, according to VesselsValue.
The 23 UAE-based maritime companies set up in 2022 manage 53 ships, including 28 tankers, said S&P, which manages the corporate shipowner registry for the International Maritime Organization.
Another 77 companies in the UAE established in 2022 have 102 ships that have made Russian port calls for the first time since 5 December. More than half of them are tankers.
Dubai is also the home to Sovcomflot (SCF Group) technical manager Sun Ship Management. Sun Ship Management has been sanctioned by the EU and UK.
