The landscape of sanctions and political risk has made the business of shipping significantly more complex, but not everyone is set up to deal with that complexity. This week’s podcast pulls in the sanctions experts to discuss how shipping is navigating the new world order of Russian sanctions and what the industry needs to understand about regulatory enforcement appetites and increasingly forensic surveillance of subterfuge shipping practices

Evolution of ship-to-ship network in Mediterranean seen because global oil trade routes recalibrate as sanctions divert Russian shipments to China and India

Incidents emerge on Friday amid spat between Tehran and Athens over US seizure of Iranian oil cargo off Russian tanker held in Greek port

A US crackdown against a Moscow-backed Iranian oil smuggling network offers a window on the sanctions strategy in Washington. The takeaway for shipping is that enforcement against subterfuge oil networks is likely to be stepped up as nuclear talks collapse

A tanker suspected of carrying Iranian crude oil has been roaming the Adriatic for weeks awaiting a decision from the Croatian government over whether to accept or reject the shipment labelled ‘Malaysian blend’

National leaders at a summit in Tokyo have turned their attention to maritime security. New initiative will seek to track ‘dark shipping’ and sanctions-busting ship-to-ship transfers

George Procopiou’s Dynacom has been hired to transfer US-sanctioned Iranian crude from the Russian-flagged tanker Lana, detained in April by Greek authorities on the basis of Russian sanctions, and transfer the oil to the US

At least four members of the Sovcomflot executive board, including long-serving executive vice-president and chief financial officer Nikolai Kolesnikov, have stepped down in the wake of western sanctions targeting the tanker giant. Sovcomflot’s Cyprus office has now been closed and the remaining UK operations are being directed by Moscow management

The shift of countries’ focus ‘from efficiency onto justice’ is providing shipping companies and investors with a once-in-decades opportunity. But big risks, including the geopolitical wild cards, could easily derail the rosy prospects

Sovcomflot is negotiating the sales of dozens of its vessels to multiple Chinese and Middle Eastern buyers before sanctions deadlines kick in, but sales are also now taking place via Western banks allowing legitimate sales to many of the shipping industry’s largest shipowners to go through with no sanctions restrictions

There is no risk of a new armada of cargo similar to that which followed the Suez blockage. But supply chains are still facing difficult times

The war in Ukraine has led to a recalibration of product tanker trade flows that are longer-haul, which is likely to last for years rather than months, according to Torm managing director Jacob Meldgaard