More shadow tankers on the Northern Sea Route this season than in all of 2025

By mid-September, 50 shadow fleet oil tankers and 18 LNG carriers had sailed the Northern Sea Route, against 38 and 13 for the whole of 2025, according to Bellona's shipping monitoring. Six of the LNG carriers have no ice class and two only a low one; most fly the Russian flag, with two each under the Marshall Islands and Oman flags. On 7 September the tankers Jagger and Mirabel, fresh from the route, transferred oil near Nakhodka to Navistar and Lumin for onward shipment to China.

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