Shippers of Russian crude are turning to unusual methods to move cargoes displaced from Europe over much longer distances to new customers. The most recent example is a ship-to-ship transfer in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Aframax tanker Zhen I discharged its cargo into the supertanker Lauren II in waters 300 miles west of the island of Madeira, according to ship-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg. The transfer took place May 26 to 27. Ship-to-ship transfer of Russian crude in the mid-Atlantic, May 26-27 Moving cargoes onto larger vessels is not unusual, but what is far less common is the location where it happened. Most transfers take place in sheltered waters, where the risks of oil spills are greatly reduced. Russian cargoes have been transferred to bigger ships off Skaw in Denmark, in the western Mediterranean off the Spanish North African town of Ceuta, and even in the […]