Figures extracted from the LSEG (London Inventory Trade Workforce) database point out a vital build up within the transit of Russian oil via Spanish waters. Prior to the sanctions imposed by way of the Eu Union (EU) on Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, the port of Ceuta occupied the ninetieth place within the Eu rating of the release of Russian oil. Lately it’s within the eleventh place.
Whilst Brussels tries to dam this site visitors, the Russian “ghost fleet” makes use of Spanish ports to export crude oil to Europe. The purpose is to steer clear of the sanctions imposed by way of the EU. The effects are financial and geopolitical, but additionally environmental.
Southern Europe as an access level
Sanctions towards Russia have redefined the glide map of Russian oil and fuel to the EU. Present rules limit “ghost fleet” ships from getting into Eu ports. Then again, the truth is other. Even supposing the collection of sanctioned vessels was once virtually 600 in December 2025, the slowness in transposing EU Directive 2024/1226 and successfully imposing the EU-approved restrictions creates a prison loophole that the Russian fleet is exploiting.
Violations of Eu sanctions have been thus came upon because of the access of sanctioned ships into international locations corresponding to Cyprus, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Malta and the Netherlands.
As northern Europe was once closed, the Russian fleet discovered an alternate path to go into the southern international locations. Within the length from 2022 to 2025, the international locations with essentially the most send discharges of oil of Russian beginning have been Italy, Greece and Spain. All these vessels are sanctioned in the future after docking in Eu ports.
Regardless of the bans, Russian crude oil continues to reach within the EU, ceaselessly preventing in different international locations. Shipments arrive principally from Russia, but additionally from Egypt and Turkey, which might be intermediaries.
This operational infrastructure was once now not created in a single day. The Eu Union formally started sanctioning “ghost fleet” ships till June 2024. That prolong gave Russia sufficient time to reorganize its logistics technique for exporting oil to the EU.
Within the south, there are increasingly more circumstances of oil being transferred from one send to any other within the open sea, with the environmental harm it may possibly reason. They make a selection the south as a result of they want calm waters and a strategic location to connect with Asia, one thing the North Sea does now not be offering.
That is how the “fleet of ghosts” works.
The results of Operation Ghost Fleet transcend financial or geopolitical problems. Those vessels create important bodily and environmental dangers. This can be a fleet with very outdated ships and an unsafe and dangerous operation. Oil employees elderly 16 to 22 have been sanctioned essentially the most. In step with the Ukrainian institute KSE, after the fifteenth yr, repairs declines and first-tier insurers withdraw their protection.
To paintings round prison restrictions, ships ceaselessly alternate their flag, title or proprietor. The 5 maximum sanctioned flags are the flags of Russia, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Oman. The oldest ships, with the best bodily and environmental possibility, most commonly use the Russian flag, adopted by way of ships from international locations with susceptible rules corresponding to Curaçao, Benin, Comoros, Guyana and Oman.
Additionally, the possession of the vessel is hidden to steer clear of imaginable sanctions: the 3 corporations with the biggest collection of sanctioned vessels are situated within the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Spain as a logistics middle
Spain has transform the main enclave within the community of Russian oil flows. Ceuta (eleventh), Huelva (seventeenth) and Cartagena (twentieth) are a number of the 20 EU ports with the best collection of send calls that have been therefore sanctioned.
Major routes of sanctioned ships (2022-2025). At the left, the rustic of shipment, at the proper, the rustic of vacation spot. Authors, CC BI-SA
The bodily and environmental possibility in those ports coming up from the operation of the “ghost fleet” is top. Vessels sanctioned by way of two jurisdictions (eg EU and USA) are between 15 and 30 years outdated, flying flags of various international locations. However, the fleet of vessels sanctioned by way of the 3 jurisdictions sticks out for its in depth advertising and use of the Russian flag.
Possibility profile of ships in Spanish ports (2022-2025) consistent with their age, with every colour indicating the supply. Authors, CC BI-SA
The case of Ceuta represents essentially the most being worried situation from an environmental standpoint. This can be a port with a big quantity of discharges, maximum from vessels therefore sanctioned by way of as much as two or 3 jurisdictions, elderly between 15 and 28 years and flying flags corresponding to the ones of Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Panama. Those vessels function with deficient protection requirements.
Possibility profile within the port of Ceuta (2022-2025) by way of vessel age, with every colour indicating the flag nation. Authors, CC BI-SA A rising downside
The knowledge divulge a flagrant case. It’s a few send below the flag of Cameroon, which was once sanctioned by way of the EU on February 25, 2025, which unloaded virtually 900,000 barrels of crude oil on September 12, 2025 in Ceuta. This send got here from the port of Murmansk (Russia).
Additionally, the Russian “fleet of ghosts” is on the lookout for new entries into the EU. Ports corresponding to El Hierro, Motril and Villagarcia de Arousa, which failed to obtain shipments prior to the Russian sanctions, did so after the outbreak of warfare. In 2023, for instance, greater than 1,800,000 barrels have been unloaded there by way of ships from Russia between 15 and 23 years outdated.
The size of operations of the Russian “ghost fleet” in Spanish waters is expanding. Spain imports hundreds of thousands of barrels of Russian oil transported in outdated and dangerous ships. This now not simplest contravenes Eu sanctions rules towards Russia, but additionally creates environmental and bodily dangers that can not be neglected.
The method to this downside implies now not simplest the applying of the present sanctions at the ships of the Russian “ghost fleet”, but additionally the seek for tactics to forestall the docking and switch operations of suspicious ships. If no motion is taken now, the following information may well be an ecological crisis like the person who came about on the finish of 2002 off the coast of Galicia.
