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A network of companies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia has been supplying fuel to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” according to an investigation by Lithuania’s national broadcaster LRT, conducted jointly with 15min, Eesti Ekspress, and Nekā personīga.
Tracking the movements of the vessel Blue, which belongs to the fleet tankers that transport Russian oil in violation of international sanctions, investigators found that in March the ship was refueled by the bunker tanker Rina, which supplies ships passing through the Danish Straits. In October, the same tanker took on fuel from another bunker vessel, Zircone, near the Swedish island of Gotland.
Between June 2024 and March 2025, the Rina and Zircone bunker tankers refueled 177 vessels carrying oil and petroleum products. At least 159 of those ships had called at Russian ports shortly before or after refueling. At least 20 tankers showed clear signs of belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet (for example, lacking insurance from members of the International Group of P&I Clubs, the industry’s main insurer network). During the period of observation, tankers suspected of belonging to the shadow fleet refueled with Rina and Zircone at least 30 times. Several vessels serviced by the two bunkering ships were later added to European Union, UK or U.S. sanctions lists.
Investigators found that Rina and Zircone are owned by FB Trade, a company registered in Dubai. Tracing the company’s ownership led to Fast Bunkering (Baltic Sea Bunkering), an Estonian firm founded by one of the country’s richest men, Aleksei Chulets. Subsidiaries of Fast Bunkering and other firms linked to Chulets operate in the ports of Riga and Klaipeda. Chulets’ business network also fully owns Paldiski North Port in Estonia.
In early 2022, an international investigative report revealed that Fast Bunkering had transported Russian oil products from Belarus, bypassing European Union sanctions imposed on the Lukashenko regime. In 2023, Estonian authorities launched an investigation into one of its subsidiaries, NT Bunkering, on the suspicion that it was falsifying documents that labeled Russian fuel as Kazakh in origin. The Estonian Prosecutor General’s Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing pretrial investigation.
By 2024, Fast Bunkering had formally sold its Baltic tankers. However, according to the LRT investigation, both Rina and Zircone remain under the control of companies linked to Fast Bunkering and continue supplying fuel to tankers carrying Russian oil — including those in the shadow fleet.