Russia is successfully bypassing the G7-imposed oil price cap, allowing it to earn $53 billion in just the first three quarters of 2024. Buyers of oil above the set price cap include both intermediary companies from the UAE and Hong Kong, as well as large national corporations from India, China, and Turkey. Despite the ban on maritime deliveries to Europe, Russian oil continues to reach European ports, with Greek tankers and Dubai-based companies involved in its transportation. This is reported in the investigation made by The Insider.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the EU, the US, the UK, and Canada imposed an embargo on the purchase of Russian oil transported by sea. Later, the G7 countries, the EU, and Australia set a price cap of $60 per barrel, prohibiting companies from these countries from participating in transportation and insurance if the price exceeded the limit. However, Russia found ways to circumvent these restrictions, and over 730 million barrels of oil were sold at inflated prices. The average price of such oil was $73 per barrel, with additional revenue exceeding $9.5 billion due to the price difference.
Tankers play a key role in these schemes. Oil is loaded at Russian ports in the Baltic, then ships head to the Mediterranean. In the ports of Sicily, Malta, and Trieste, instances of reduced draught of these tankers have been recorded, indicating the unloading of oil. In some cases, transloading happens at sea, from ship to ship. Among the owners of such tankers are Greek companies TMS Tankers and Cardiff Marine, linked to billionaire George Economou and his sister Chrysoúla Kandílidis. Of the 21 tankers lightened in European waters after loading in Russia, 11 belong to Economou’s structures.
The main buyers of Russian oil at inflated prices are firms from the UAE, Hong Kong, and China. Dubai's Litasco Middle East DMCC (renamed LME Trading DMCC), previously part of the Lukoil structure, leads the list. Second place goes to Hong Kong's Guron Trading Limited, which was sanctioned on January 10, 2025. Other large importers include China's Chinaoil (Hong Kong) Corporation, Turkey's Tupras, and India's Indian Oil Corporation. Many of these companies are formally not connected to Russian businesses but work closely with major Russian oil producers.
In addition to legal traders, little-known shell companies are also involved in the scheme. For example, Dubai-registered Disentis Trading LLC FZ bought over 40 million barrels of Russian oil in 2024, but no information is available about its beneficiaries. Another Dubai-based company, Eterra Crude Oil Abroad Trading LLC, with a turnover of 42 million barrels, was sanctioned by the US in early 2025. A similar situation applies to Hong Kong's Blackford Corporation Limited, whose owners are hidden, and UAE's Rubus FZE, which also remains off the sanctions lists.
In Europe, participation in such schemes continues to be denied. The owner of Aegean Shipping Management claimed their vessel Green Aura was transporting Kazakh oil, but it remains unclear why it loaded at the RosneftBunker terminal and later appeared in Sicily. Meanwhile, Latvian entrepreneur Alexey Kalyavin, linked to such schemes, has been placed under Western sanctions.
