The tanker Beast, which has been sanctioned this year by the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and Switzerland for violating restrictions on Russian oil exports, is waiting in the port area of Arica to unload fuel at the Sica Sica terminal. The facility is managed by the Bolivian company YPFB.
The ship, which belongs to Russia’s ghost or shadow fleet, is waiting because operations at Sica Sica remain suspended due to the prevailing swells in the area where the facility is located.
Bolivia expects to unload about 96 million liters of fuel to supply the country’s service stations. Alongside the Beast, flagged in Sierra Leone, the Symphony, registered in Gambia, is also waiting.
The Beast was sanctioned for conducting ship-to-ship operations with other penalized vessels and other high-risk operations near European countries in order to hide the origin of its cargo. This ship was also penalized for exporting Russian crude oil and oil derivatives since March 2023 when an oil embargo from the G7 and the European Union was in effect, which also had a maximum price policy for those products.
According to available background information, its bad practices of ship-to-ship transfer of liquid products of Russian origin usually take place in the vicinity of Greece and Cyprus.
Last August, Ukraine sanctioned the ship’s captain, Batalov Dmitrii.
This vessel – 183 meters in length, 30,030 gross tons and a deadweight of 47,120 tons, belongs to the company, based in Seychelles, Ocean Voyage Corp. Previously, this tanker has been named Evros and Proodos and has been registered, since 2005 when it was delivered, under the flags of Greece, Bahamas, Marshall Islands and Palau.
