Finland: Russia's Baltic oil exports have fallen 10% following EU sanctions

The Finnish Border Guard reported that the Russian oil exports via the Baltic Sea dropped by 10% in the final four months of 2024 as the EU sanctions on Russian oil and gas were implemented.

Baltic Sea nations have been put on high alert following disruptions in power cables, gas pipelines, and telecom links since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine 2022. Some of these disruptions are linked to tanker activities.

Finland's Coast Guard is also monitoring the shadow fleet used by Russia to export oil through the Gulf of Finland.

Mikko Hrvi, Head of Maritime Safety at the Finnish Border Guard, said late last week that the fleet includes tankers in poor and old condition. This means there is a danger they could leak oil or cause environmental damage to the fragile and shallow Baltic Sea.

He said that in the last four to five months of the year, the amount of oil being exported from Russia had decreased by about 10%. This was compared with the two-year average of 70 to 80 oil tankers per week exporting oil via the Baltic Sea.

Hirvi stated that the decline began when the EU increased the number shadow fleet tankers sanctioned in June. This month, the U.S. also tightened up its sanctions.

Sanctions can include the removal of shadow fleet tankers from service.

"That's great, but at the same, we have added older vessels to the Baltic Sea traffic." "The vessels are in worse shape than before," said he, adding that it was too soon to say if this decline would be only temporary.

The Finnish Coast Guard reported that in October it detected disruptions to satellite navigation signalling in the Baltic Sea, and some tankers altered their location data so as to conceal their visits.

It said that the lack of navigational signals led to situations where vessels drifted dangerously near islands or shallow water and became lost.

The Coast Guard was forced to seize an oil tanker on Dec. 30 that was headed to Primorsk, Russia due to engine failure. Germany seized another tanker drifting off its Baltic Coast on Jan. 10. Anne Kauranen, Helsinki, and Barbara Lewis edited the story.

(source: Reuters)