In January, China Increased Imports of russian Oil Through the rf’s “shadow fleet”, while India Significantly Reduced Them

At the beginning of the year, the number of active tankers in the rf’s “shadow fleet” (sf) decreased by 9 units. In January 2026, 138 tankers were recorded as being used to export oil and petroleum products. Of those, 117 were core sf vessels, with sanctions having already been imposed on 96 of them. At the same time, attention was drawn by 4 new vessels that had not previously been on the radar.

In the first month of this year, 18 STS operations were recorded between tankers, mainly in the waters of the Sea of Japan (nakhodka) and the South China Sea (Hong Kong), near the coast of Malaysia (EOPL), with subsequent delivery of russian oil to China.

From January 1 to 31 of this year, tankers of the “shadow fleet” exported from russia 14.320 million tons (104.424 million barrels) of oil, which is by 1.417 million tons less than in the previous month.

sf tankers made the most trips – 51 – to China, delivering 4.990 million tons of raw materials. This is by 0.398 million tons more than in the previous month. At the same time, there was a decrease of 2.271 million tons in the volume of oil delivered to India, with 29 voyages carrying 3.222 million tons. The “shadow” tankers made 8 voyages to Turkey, transporting 0.904 million tons (by 0.107 million tons more), and 4 voyages to Syria and Georgia, transporting 0.391 million tons (by 0.093 million tons more). Also, in the first month of 2026, sf tankers made 45 trips to unidentified countries and pumped 4.813 million tons of russian oil, which is by 0.256 million tons more than in December 2025.

The largest number of voyages and volumes of exported oil and petroleum products are accounted for by russian ports in the Baltic Sea and the far east. In particular, in January of this year, 59 voyages were made in the Baltic Sea (primorsk – 22, primorsk mix – 16, ust luga/tntk – 21) with a total volume of 6.247 million tons (by 0.282 million tons less than in December 2025); far east – 50 voyages (nakhodka/kozmino – 37, de kastri/sakhalin I – 8, prigorodnoye/sakhalin II – 5) with a total volume of 4.817 million tons (by 0.290 million tons less); the Black Sea – 13 voyages (novorossiysk/sheskharis – 13, novorossiysk/cpc terminal – 0) with a total volume of 1.481 million tons (by 1.424 million tons less); north of russia – 15 voyages (murmansk – 6, murmansk/fso rosneft umba – 6, murmansk/fso kola – 3) with a total volume of 1.776 million tons (by 0.580 million tons more).

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