The European Union sanctioned a Turkish tanker operator on 15 June for running three ships it said lacked insurance and hid their movements while carrying Russian oil, but listed none of the ships. Within nine days four tankers the company ran, the three named and one more, had been transferred to an unlisted firm at the same Istanbul address. They have kept trading.
The Council added Trans KA Tankers Management Company to its asset-freeze list as the commercial operator of the Haci Kemal Ka, the Lycia Ka and the Sumer. It did not add the three ships, or a fourth Trans KA tanker, the Can Ka, to the EU's blacklist of shadow fleet vessels, which bars ships from EU ports whoever owns them. The current consolidated text of the Russia sanctions Regulation, incorporating every amendment to 16 July, carries no entry for any of the four; nor does any other jurisdiction list them, according to the Maritime Watch's Mariel database of sanctions and port inspection records.
When it listed Trans KA on 15 June, the EU's statement of reasons said the three named ships "lack adequate liability insurance and engage in manipulation of Automatic Identification Systems" while carrying Russian crude or petroleum products, and that Trans KA therefore operates vessels engaged in "irregular and high-risk shipping practices" as defined by the IMO; the Council removed the reference to insurance on 22 September.
A company listing bars EU firms from dealing with that company. It does not follow a ship when the ship changes hands. Equasis records show the Sumer's management passing from Trans KA to White Tankers Gemi Isletmeciligi on 17 June, two days after the listing; the Haci Kemal Ka on 19 June; the Lycia Ka on 20 June; and the Can Ka, the one ship Trans KA owned as well as managed, on 23 and 24 June, when its registered owner also changed, to Aegean Tersanecilik.
White Tankers is not on any sanctions list, though Ukraine's military intelligence names it on its War & Sanctions portal as owner and manager since January 2023 of the tanker Uluc Ka, which the portal says carried Russian oil from Novorossiysk to Turkish ports (which is not unlawful); that entry is dated September 2024, nine months before the EU listed Trans KA. White Tankers' address in the Equasis register — Apartmani 57, Denizciler Ticaret Merkezi, Sahil Yolu Bulvarı 126, Tuzla, 34947 — has the same street number, unit and postcode as the address the EU published for Trans KA when it listed it. The registered owners of the Haci Kemal Ka, the Lycia Ka and the Sumer were already recorded "c/o White Tankers" at that unit before the listing, in one case since December 2021. Trans KA describes itself on LinkedIn as the main shipping subsidiary of Akbasoglu Holding; Akbasoglu Foreign Trade & Ship is the Haci Kemal Ka's registered owner. Aegean Tersanecilik's address is in the same complex.
Trading an unlisted ship under an unlisted company is lawful. EU sanctions also catch companies owned or controlled by a listed company, but whether that is the case here is for Member State authorities to establish, and a shared address is not of itself proof of common control. The Maritime Watch has found no public record of White Tankers' shareholders or directors.
Since the transfers the fleet has been re-certified and re-insured by Western firms. The American Bureau of Shipping surveyed the Lycia Ka on 20 June, the day it changed hands, and the Haci Kemal Ka on 6 August; the Italian society RINA issued the Sumer a six-month safety-management certificate on 17 June; Lloyd's Register remains holder of the Can Ka's class certification. Britannia was recorded as the Sumer's P&I insurer on 2 July, and The London P&I Club as insurer of the other three on 9 September.
The Lycia Ka, which still flies the Marshall Islands flag, was inspected at Siracusa on 18 August under White Tankers' management and passed with no deficiencies, Paris MoU records in the Mariel database show. Vessel tracking data on 23 September showed all four ships still trading: the Lycia Ka off the Greek port of Lavrion and the Sumer, the Haci Kemal Ka and the Can Ka in the Sea of Marmara, according to VesselFinder.
Trans KA's website carries a statement that the company complies with US, EU, UK and UN sanctions and that, as of October 2025, "all commercial activities, transportation, and services directly or indirectly linked to the Russian Federation have been fully suspended". The statement is undated. Trans KA and White Tankers had not responded to questions from the Maritime Watch by the time of publication, including whether the two companies are under common ownership and why the ships were transferred within days of the listing.
The European External Action Service, asked why the three ships cited in the grounds for listing Trans KA were not listed as vessels and whether White Tankers was considered at the time, had not responded by the time of publication.
Trans KA's listing remains in force. None of the four ships is listed.
Correction, 2 October: an earlier version of this article described the insurance ground as part of the EU's current reasons. The Council removed it on 22 September, the day before publication. Update: the European External Action Service responded on 24 September; see Shadow fleet: Brussels answers on the ships it didn't list.
See also: Shadow fleet's Dubai carousel kept Iranian network ahead of sanctions lists See also: The port trail left by a sanctioned Russian billionaire's trading groups