Under flag of Gabon, tankers sail sanctioned Russian oil through Arctic ice

The Sai Baba is believed to have loaded crude oil in Murmansk in mid-September. It subsequently set course for the Arctic route that connects the North Atlantic with the Pacific. 

On the 18th of September, the tanker was located near the Kola Bay, information from ship tracking services show. Nine days later, it was sailing through the Kara Sea, according to data from Russia's Northern Sea Route Administration.

As it makes it further east, the almost 20 year old tanker with a deadweight of 158,889 tons will run into a major layer of multi-year sea-ice. The sea-ice in the Chukchi Sea has troubled regional shipments this summer.

The Sai Baba has ice-class Ice2.

The tanker carries the flag of Gabon and appears to be managed by a company from the United Arab Emirates. Judging from the Northern Sea Route Administration, it has permission to sail without icebreaker escort in light sea-ice conditions in the period from 10th of September to 31st of October.

The 274 meter long tanker was built in 2006 and used to operate under the name Cap Guillaume for a Belgian shipper. It was sold in November 2022 and has since sailed under the name Sai Baba. It is due to arrive in the Chinese port of Huizhou on October 15.

The Sai Baba is not the only Gabon-registered tanker that now sails through the rough Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route.

As it embarked on its Arctic voyage to China, two other Gabon-registered tankers were waiting in the waters outside Murmansk to be loaded. The NS Nordic and SCF Baltica are likely to follow in the wake of the Sai Baba. At the same time, the Moskovsky Prospect appears to be embarking on a East-West voyage on the route from India to Murmansk. Also the SCF Yenisey, the Suvorovsky Prospect and the Nanda Devi in late September sailed on the remote Arctic route.

Since Moscow launched its full-scale war against Ukraine and the international community introduced rounds of sanctions against the Russian oil and gas industry, the small West African state has offered shelter to a quickly expanding fleet of shadow vessels that carry sanctioned Russian oil 

The country that experienced a coup d'état in 2023 is today one of the Russian oil industry's best friends. In addition to the seven tankers that currently sail in Russian Arctic waters, dozens of more carriers have over the last two years been listed in the Gabon ship registry.

Among them is reportedly 50 ships owned by Sovcomflot.

According to Lloyd's List (behind paywall), the African nation has employed a private company based in the United Arab Emirates to run the registry. Almost all of the tonnage of the Gabon-registered ships are now engaged in shipments of sanctioned Russian oil.

In 2024, Gabon had the world's quickest growing ship registry. In only one month, the number of ships in the registry doubled, Splash247 reports.

The shady business in May 2024 resulted in the inclusion of Gabon in the list of Flags of Convenience. 

“It’s a toxic industry – registering ships in countries where there is no regulation, no oversight and no accountability. It allows for exploitation and the abandonment of seafarers," Paddy Crumlin, President of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said in a comment on the decision.