UK and EU Gasoline Reaching Russia Through Moroccan Blending Hub as Sanctions Evasion Reverses

Windward's analysis of shipping and Vortexa trade-flow data found Russia imported an estimated 3.85 million barrels of gasoline and diesel in July–August, rising from roughly 500,000 barrels in July to about 3.4 million in August, with gasoline and blending components making up 3.1 million barrels 12. Windward reported that shipments received at a 3.35-million-barrel, 19-tank Tanger Med terminal in Morocco show roughly 1.0 million barrels of UK- and EU-origin gasoline loaded via nine tankers in Spain, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Italy, and the UK arriving January–August, against roughly 1.0 million barrels shipped from the terminal to Russian Arctic and Baltic ports in June–July and another 500,000 barrels in transit; the terminal's last non-Russia export was about 260,000 barrels to Spain in May, consistent with blending EU/UK cargo with older stock before Russia-bound shipment 12. Windward said these are the first Morocco-to-Russia gasoline shipments in Vortexa's records dating to 2016, and that the same terminal re-exported Russian diesel to European Mediterranean ports as "Moroccan" product over 2023–2025 12. Separately, Windward tracked eight tankers (3,300 to 46,308 dwt) carrying an estimated 780,000 barrels of South Korean diesel and gasoline to Vladivostok, Magadan, Nakhodka, and Korsakov in Russia's Far East in July–August, including a Barbados-flagged tanker that transferred roughly 340,000 barrels via ship-to-ship transfer at Yeosu on August 5 to an EU/UK-sanctioned vessel bound for Vladivostok 12.