Steps to block oil transfers off Greek coast

The government believes it has found a way to disrupt the sanctions-busting operations taking place off the southern coast of the Greek mainland that allow Russian oil exports.

The Hellenic Navy has issued a navigational guidance closing off the Laconian Gulf, off the southeastern coast of the Peloponnese, for naval exercises from May 1-9. 

It remains to be seen whether the Navy will use rolling navigational warnings after May 9. But it is under pressure from NATO allies to do something to disrupt the tanker operation.

The Laconian Gulf has become, over the past two years, a major location to circumvent sanctions against Russian oil exports.

International media, such as Bloomberg and CNN, have reported on the operations in the Laconian Gulf, which take place in international waters, that is, more than 6 nautical miles (6.9 land miles or 11.1 kilometers) off the Greek coast. CNN had reported on a Russian tanker that left the Russian port of Novorossiysk, in the Black Sea, in mid-December full of crude oil. The oil was transferred to another tanker at end-December. The second tanker then sailed for India, where it arrived in mid-January. There, the Russian oil was refined and entered the markets, shorn of its original provenance.

This was not an isolated occurrence. Bloomberg reported that, at one point in December, at least 12 tankers had anchored in the Laconian Gulf waiting for Russian oil; in effect, given the sanctions, they were waiting to receive and transport contraband.

As the transfer operations take place in international waters and none of the tankers involved sail under the Greek flag, the Greek Coast Guard cannot inspect them. And there is no authorized operation that would allow the Navy to do so, either.

The choice of the Laconian Gulf for the sanctions-busting operations was deliberate. Its size was one factor, but there was also the fact that Greece did not extend its territorial waters to 12 miles, as it has the right to do under maritime law, in this particular area, which would have effectively prohibited the operations.

In 2020, Greece did extend its territorial waters off its western coasts from 6 to 12 miles. But doing so in the east would mean that there would be no continuous free passage through international waters in the Aegean. Turkey, already hemmed in by Greece’s Aegean islands, declared in 1995 that such an extension would be a cause for war.

While protesting its right to extend its territorial waters to 12 miles along all its coasts, Greece has avoided doing so in the Aegean. Turkey, not able to extend its own territorial waters in the Aegean, has done so in the Black Sea.