Over the course of the past few months Volga Shipping (“Company”) has become the target of a coordinated attack in media outlets, each reiterating the same set of inaccurate statements.
The articles attempt to portray the standard logistical operations of the Company as a means to circumvent the EU embargo on Russian oil and the EU ban on Russian vessels entering EU ports. These allegations are false and mislead public opinion. The Company therefore considers it necessary to make the following statements:
1. The Company has always carried out its business in strict compliance with all applicable international rules and restrictions, and always uses Automatic Identification System transponders on all of its vessels, so the location of each is always transparent.
2. The Company did not transport any crude oil in 2022.
3. All cargos, including liquid ones, were permitted for transportation at the time of the provision of services.
4. Cargo owners only, and not us as the transportation company, decide on the use and location of ship-to-ship (“STS”) transfers.
The Company’s liquid cargo fleet consists of small vessels with a deadweight of up to 6,500 tons. The cargo shipments by such vessels to tankers with larger capacity (30,000-180,000 tons) is a common, economically efficient and long-standing practice, and is not in any way undertaken in order to circumvent the recent ban on access of Russian vessels to EU ports.
It is worth noting that the STS practice has been widely used by cargo owners for decades, not only in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea but throughout the world.
The presentation in these publications of the standard and established shipping practice of STS as an action aimed at circumventing the sanctions imposed in 2022 is false, and we believe they have been published without proper investigation with the sole purpose of wrongly discrediting the reputation of the Company.