Venezuela risk accelerates Russian intake of shadow fleet vessels
THE US ousting of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has further accelerated the flow of shadow fleet* vessels into the protection of the Russian flag.
Following a two-week pursuit of the sanctioned tanker Bella 1 (IMO: 9230880), Moscow officials issued a diplomatic notice to the US State Department on December 31 confirming the tanker had formally changed its name to Marinera and switched its registration to the Russian ship register.
The mid-voyage flag change effectively gave the tanker, which started its journey in Iran and had been on its way to pick up oil in Venezuela when US forces tried to stop and board it in the Caribbean Sea, Russian protection.
Bella 1 had been falsely flagged to Guyana at the point that US initially tried to board it.
According to data from the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the vessel, is now registered under the name Marinera, with its home port designated as Sochi.
While Marinera’s swift switch to Russia under pressure from the US generated international headlines, it was not the only ship seeking protection from Russia as the US was setting about regime change in Venezuela.
Four days prior to Marinera’s new Russian identity was formalised, another US sanctioned tanker that had just delivered Russian naphtha to Amuay Bay also joined the Russian flag having previously been falsely flying the Gambia flag.
Following the switch, Hyperion (IMO: 9322968) defied the US “blockade” on sanctioned ships entering or leaving Venezuela and headed towards Russia.
Another sanctioned tanker, Premier (IMO: 9577082), was less lucky in escaping the blockade. The product tanker, which is registered to a Seychelles company Lobelia Transport Limited and managed via a UAE-registered firm Orchid Shipmanagement LLC, switch from Gambia to Russia on December 22, but remains in ballast outside Jose terminal Venezuela.
Lloyd’s List understands that several other ships currently attempting to leave Venezuela are similarly using fraudulent flags and may follow others in joining the Russian register to continue trading.
Veronica III (IMO: 9326055) is one of several tankers understood to be attempting to leave Venezuelan waters. The tanker, which is intermittently spoofing it’s AIS position off the coast of Nigeria and Finland, has been signalling that it is flying the flag of Panama. The Panama ship register, however, confirms the vessel was deregistered in December 2024.
It remains unclear whether additional tankers will now switch to Russia as they attempt to break the US blockade of Venezuela.
The recent interest from Venezuela-trading vessels has only added to the accelerating trend of shadow fleet ships servicing sanctioned Russian trades to formally switch to the Russian register.
Last month saw 17 sanctioned tankers move into the Russian Register, marking a significant acceleration of similar moves that has seen more than 40 vessels end flag hopping and fraudulent flag operations to join Russia since June last year.
That shifts in flagging towards Russia, first reported by Lloyd’s List last month, points to a more permanent evolution of the shadow fleet with direct oversight and protection from Russia.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has built up a so-called shadow fleet of hundreds of tankers, however the clandestine nature of the opaquely owned ships had previously allowed Moscow plausible deniability when it came to oversight.
That policy now appears to be changing as shadow fleet tankers increasingly eschew the subterfuge tactics of cycling through multiple flag changes, often between entirely fraudulent registers.
Of the 17 tankers that joined the Russian flag in December, 13 of them had previously been fraudulently registered under The Gambia. In November, The Gambia Maritime Administration notified the International Maritime Organization that 72 vessels, including Hyperion, had been deregistered.
While most continue to use the flag fraudulently, many of them are now switching to Russia, generally on the ballast legs of their latest voyage.
Several of the shadow fleet ships have cycled through at least four flag changes, mostly via known fraudulent operations, before ending up in Russia.
While that trend is now visibly accelerating in the second half of 2025, there has been a 38% increase in the overall size of the Russian flag in deadweight tonnage terms since beginning of the war in Ukraine.
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