Sanctions Now Cover 16% of Total Tanker Capacity
Fresh measures announced Friday saw the US add 14 vessels linked to Iranian trade, while the EU prepares to list another 43 ships and restrict European maritime services for transporting Russian crude. In total, 935 oil tankers are now sanctioned, equivalent to roughly 112 million dwt or around 16% of global fleet capacity, highlighting the scale at which sanctions are reshaping tanker supply and oil trade dynamics.

Sanctioned Barrels Build at Sea
As a result, sanctioned crude is increasingly accumulating offshore as buyers pivot toward unsanctioned supply. Floating storage of Russian and Iranian barrels has climbed to around 58 million barrels from just 6 million early last year, tightening mainstream availability and contributing to roughly a 10% rise in oil prices over the past two months. More than a dozen tankers carrying an estimated 10 to 12 million barrels of Russian Urals are now heading toward Asia, underscoring the continued shift in flows toward China as Indian demand moderates.