CREA puts cost of a shadow tanker spill at up to $1.6 billion

Cleaning up an oil spill from a typical Russian 'shadow' tanker could cost from $859 million in Europe to $1.6 billion in Southeast Asia, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said on 11 October. The Helsinki-based group says 294 shadow tankers have carried Russian seaborne crude to date, with an average of three leaving Russian ports each day. Comparing January–August 2024 with 2022, it found shadow tanker traffic up 277% through the Danish Straits and 649% through the Suez Canal. It also counts 50 incidents from the Danish Straits to Malaysia. CREA analyst Petras Katinas said the practice 'has escalated dramatically' since the full-scale invasion.

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