According to an investigation published on February 21, the Financial Times (FT) identified 48 companies as operating independently, registered at different addresses, but showing signs of cooperation as part of the so-called "dark fleet" - a mechanism Russia uses to transport oil to evade sanctions.
This network was exposed when companies used a common private email server. FT discovered 442 domain names with registered data all based on the same server "mx. phoenixtrading. ltd". From there, the newspaper compared the domain names with Russian and Indian customs records, identifying companies named for transporting Russian crude oil.
An example given is Foxton FZCO, a company based in Dubai. The company's domain names use the above-mentioned common server and are said to have exported Russian oil worth 5.6 billion USD.
In total, companies in the network have transported more than 90 billion USD of Russian crude oil since the West sanctioned Russian oil. However, FT believes the actual figure may be even higher.
After the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, the US and the European Union (EU) imposed a series of sanctions to limit Russia's energy revenue. To respond, Russia relies on its "dark fleet" of oil tankers and trade intermediaries to maintain exports to Asian and other regional markets.
According to the most recent full Russian customs data accessed by FT, as of November 2024, more than 80% of the oil exports by sea of the Russian Rosneft Group were carried out through the network of the above-mentioned companies.
Rosneft is Russia's largest state-owned oil and gas corporation and plays a key role in energy exports. The fact that most of its sea exports depend on a network of intermediary companies shows that the trade structure has changed significantly since sanctions were imposed.
Mr. Sergey Vakulenko, an expert at the Carnegie Russia - Eurasia Center based in Berlin (Germany), said that the use of dozens of shell companies evokes the business practices of the 1990s in Russia.
According to him, this was once how many large assets were formed and taxes were avoided during the economic transition period. However, he expressed surprise that a single network developed on such a large scale and played such an important role for Rosneft. "I think there will be even more'puppets'" - he said.
The FT's investigation highlights the challenges in implementing energy sanctions, as cross-border transactions can be hidden through layers of legal entities and complex ownership structures.
In the context of high global energy demand and unstable alternative supplies, Russian oil continues to find outlets through more flexible mechanisms.
