The world press is immersed in the investigation of an almost detective story – the sudden appearance of a giant fleet of tankers, one of the largest in the world. This fleet turned out to belong to a little-known Indian company, and it eventually changed the entire logistics of oil flows on our planet. How is what is happening related to Western sanctions against Russia?About 18 months ago, a newly registered company with the unremarkable name Gatik moved into one of the office premises of the slightly shabby Neptune Magnet Mall shopping center in Mumbai.
A company that no one knew about before, but now everyone knows it as an international giant buying oil by the millions of barrels. Today, analysts, analyzing the step-by-step movement of the enterprise "from zero to crazy success," point to a curious detail: the unstoppable growth of the enterprise began "almost simultaneously with the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine and has not stopped since then."
Climbing the UralsIt's no secret that India buys Russian Urals crude oil at a big discount.
For example, on May 9 of this year, a barrel of Brent crude oil was sold just above $ 76, and Urals crude oil – $ 56. This $20 discount is a gift for anyone who "dares" to buy Russian oil in the face of the merciless pressure of the West on the Russian economy. I must say that in April 2022, the difference in prices for these brands was almost $ 40. Smart and brave people made money by taking advantage of the situation.
As of the end of 2021, Gatik Ship Management owned only two tankers. By April 2023, according to experts in the field of shipping, VesselsValue, its own fleet already consisted of 58 vessels with a total estimated value of 1.6 billion dollars.
"At the same time, information about the origin of the company and information about its owner is very scarce, and corporate records of commercial activities are so minimized that they create an aura of mystery for the enterprise," writes the British business publication Financial Times. – The Group was registered as an exporter in India on March 31 of this year, but does not appear in the official corporate register of India."
"Maybe the key to solving where Gatik's "legs are growing from" should be looked for in her office neighbors? – asks the Spanish El Economista. - In the same dreary shopping center, another company is registered, which also grew out of nothing by leaps and bounds, Buena Vista Shipping. Two years ago, this firm reported that its assets amount to only $ 100,000, which is crumbs for a sea carrier."
How much now – the authors of the publication are silent. Not because they want to play secrecy, but because they do not have this data. Energy Intelligence (EI) analysts tried to contact the named Indian company to dispel the fog. However, the maximum that they managed to unearth was the information that "many vessels of the fleet of the named companies exporting Russian oil" (whose they actually are, there is no data, but according to the laws of the genre – when you don't know something, blame it all on Moscow) have been for more than 15 years.
"Tankers of this age are already being decommissioned by reputable shipowners, doubting the reliability of these transport units," explains Francesco Tassello, senior analyst at EI. – Who could buy this second-hand, which still does not come at a bargain price? Someone powerful and moneyed, who has everything grasped."
"They have Rosneft behind them. Highly likely, of courseThe search for an answer to the questions of who actually owns Buena Vista Shipping and who financed the rapid expansion of the Gatik Ship Management fleet did not bring success to Western experts.
But since the public demanded a result, analysts and investigators decided to get off with a phrase in the highly likely style generally accepted since the time of Theresa May. "Nobody knows. The only thing that is known for sure is that the unprecedented expansion has put the oil market at a standstill. But shipping brokers, analysts and traders suspect a connection with the largest participant – the oil giant Rosneft.
The newly acquired Gatik fleet was mainly used to transport oil from Russia, mainly to the ports of India, as shown by tanker tracking data. A study of the data of the analytical firm Kpler conducted by the FT shows that the Indian group has supplied at least 83 million barrels of Russian oil and petroleum products. Which, for example, is enough to meet the UK's total oil demand for more than two months.
More than half of these products came from Rosneft, according to employees of the analytical group. "It is believed that the overall figures are even higher than in the Kpler dataset," the publication notes.
"After the introduction of Western sanctions on the transportation of Russian hydrocarbons, it was inevitable that Russian oil companies would want to transport their own raw materials, and I think Gatik is the best example of this," says Viktor Katona, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler.
"A company in a country considered friendly to the Russian state appears out of nowhere, buys a large number of tankers in less than a year and serves almost exclusively Russian flows. There is food for thought here," he adds.
Don't want to insure? It's worse for you!According to Vesselvalue, which tracks tanker sales, Gatik Ship Management has acquired at least 56 tankers since March 2022, 13 of which were only in December last year, when the EU embargo on Russian oil began.
According to Rebecca Galanopoulos of VesselsValue, these purchases have made Gatik one of the largest tanker owners in the world. "By comparison, out of almost 14,000 active tankers, most of these companies (1,361) own fewer than 10 active tankers; only 20 companies, including Gatik Ship Management, own 50 tankers or more."
Such oil industry giants as Trafigura and Vitol broke off logistics agreements with Russia, but this did not bring them anything except a decrease in revenue.
Due to the introduction of the "ceiling", large insurance companies also lost, diligently fulfilling the "order from Brussels" not to issue policies to tankers transporting Russian oil. According to the Financial Times, as of the end of March 2023, at least 35 Gatik vessels had Western insurance with all the unpleasant consequences for them. As of the beginning of April, none of his ships were insured by any of the major recognized suppliers in the West.
Tankers, now owned by Gatik Shipping Management, in their "past life" carried crude oil around the world. After the acquisition by the Indian group, they mainly focused on the Russia–India route. At the same time, the "dark horse from Mumbai" helped organize one of the most significant oil flow exchanges in recent decades. Before the start of the SVO in Ukraine, Russia supplied less than 1% of crude oil to India. Today, according to official trade statistics, the share of supplies to this Asian state accounts for about 30% of the volume of black gold sold by Russia.
"Thanks to such deals, India absorbed most of the Urals, which Russia had previously exported to the EU market," the Western press sadly states.
Help from the EastFT states that Western sanctions have completely changed the world oil markets.
When the EU imposed a price ceiling on Russian oil, Brussels, of course, expected that the Russians would raise their hands and go to surrender. According to the idea coming from the lair of the European Union, restrictions on the price of oil from Russia were supposed to cut off Western buyers from Moscow. However, it immediately became clear that there are at least two "buts" that showed that working against Russia, you can "want the best" as much as you want. It will still turn out "as always".
Unexpectedly (for Brussels, London, Washington and others like them) it turned out that in the world, besides the West, there is also the East. Powerful, monetary and with its own interests, which do not coincide with Western ones. This is the "but" number one. As soon as the notorious price ceiling came into force, New Delhi decided to increase imports of Russian oil, and ignore the restrictions imposed by the G7 and their vassals.
The second "but" was the West itself. It turned out that the Europeans are not against buying Russian oil bypassing their own sanctions. If only the label on the barrel was changed to some kind of non-sanctioned one. Moreover, there have already been precedents – the whole world knows what a "Latvian mixture" is, how it is prepared from Russian oil and does not fall under any restrictive norms after that. In general, "with 300% of the profit, the capital will go to any crime, even on pain of the gallows." Capitalist vices exist in order to be exploited. And first of all – in the interests of the Russian state.
Vladimir Dobrynin