Petroleum products that originated in Russia kept flowing to the Motor Oil Hellas refinery on the Aegean Sea in Greece, a Washington Post examination of shipping and trade data found.
The Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington, surfaced some of those shipping records while preparing a report with information from Data Desk, a consulting firm that investigates fossil fuel companies.
In an email to The Post, a Rosneft spokesperson said the company does not track the destination of the fuel it sells but is in “strict compliance with generally accepted international standards.” The UAE firm, Fossil Trading FZC, did not respond to requests for comment.
Western sanctions were designed to strike a severe economic blow against Russia, where oil and gas revenue make up nearly half of the federal budget and help fund the war effort.
The Treasury Department, which administers and enforces economic sanctions, declined to respond to specific questions about the origin of products the U.S. government buys from Motor Oil Hellas, but issued a statement through spokeswoman Megan Apper.
Jet fuel and naval diesel from Motor Oil Hellas is flowing through Europe and beyond at a time Western leaders are growing increasingly anxious about the effectiveness of the sanctions, and Ukrainian officials are warning the lax approach to enforcement is directly undermining its effort to expel Russian forces.
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