The second is a ‘grey fleet’ – this is the entirely new subdivision of shipping created in response to the sanctions. According to Maritime Insights firm Windward AI, this fleet numbers around 900 ships smuggling Russian oil that have been registered to other countries, sometimes changing to others to obfuscate ownership. This fleet largely operates in a quasi-legal if not slippery manner, transporting oil to eager buyers including China, India and Turkey who have emerged after bans on imports from the US, UK, Canada etc.¹⁾

The current trading VLCC fleet is 870 vessels (Braemar). Of those, BRS implies that ~15% are “grey”.²⁾

660 Aframaxes. ~150 are “grey” = 22.7%³⁾

573 Suezmaxes. ~92 are “grey” = 16%⁴⁾