Mellitah Oil & Gas and Vitol Exposed: Billion-Dollar Fuel Smuggling Empire Out of Libya
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0298?utm_source=chatgpt.com Treasury Sanctions International Network Smuggling Oil from Libya to Europe
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-libya-russia-oil-smuggling/?utm_source=chatgpt.com Russia Is Benefiting From Libya’s $5 Billion Smuggled-Fuel Trade
https://themalteseherald.com/2025/03/05/alkagesta-an-azerbaijani-oil-seller-in-malta-is-accused-of-smuggling-libyan-oil/ Alkagesta: An Azerbaijani oil seller in Malta is accused of smuggling Libyan oil
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/albania-seizes-22500-tonnes-oil-suspected-coming-russia-2023-02-22/ Albania seizes 22,500 tonnes of oil suspected of coming from Russia
The explosion of the “black market” for fuel in eastern Libya
According to international observers, diesel smuggling in Libya is growing exponentially every year, a trend also confirmed by the Libyan Court of Auditors. The country has very limited refining capacity for its own crude oil and maintains a massive subsidy program to import large quantities. The main supplier is Russia, which sends more than a third of all the fuel that Libya receive
https://theblacksea.eu/special-reports/dark-fleet-smuggling-diesel-in-the-med/ New “dark fleet” smuggling diesel in the Mediterranean.A tanker was arrested off the coast of Sicily while transferring hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel of possible Russian origin. Its movements around Malta, Italy, and Libya hint at an emerging smuggling route
The “Angelo 2” is an oil/ore carrier with IMO number 9133393 and MMSI number 613519601, currently sailing under the flag of Cameroon. It was built in 1995. The ship’s type is categorized as a Combo / Ore/oil carrier.
Here’s a breakdown:
Category: Combo / 3710.
Vessel Type: Ore/Oil Carrier.
IMO: 9133393.
MMSI: 613519601.
Flag: Cameroon.
Year Built: 1995.
Smugglers are known to prefer to work with imported products, which they consider a higher quality. Regardless of whether the origin of each smuggled shipment can be confirmed, it can be safely estimated that at least one in three litres of all smuggled diesel is Russian.
CAN KA tanker and Alkagesta
Multiple Turkish maritime and governmental sources confirmed that Alkagesta leased CAN KA, with the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (Denizcilik Genel Müdürlüğü) announcing its incorporation into the nation’s trading fleet Deniz HaberDeniz Ticaret Gazetesi
In April 2022, the tanker CAN KA was chartered by Malta-based Alkagesta and registered under the Turkish flag. It officially joined the Turkish merchant fleet, operating a 37,582 DWT capacity vessel to support bunkering services with Marmara Ereğlisi storage terminals and Istanbul delivery routes Loji PortDeniz Haber.
https://www.importyeti.com/supplier/maddox-dmcc-o-b-o-alkagesta
https://www.lojiport.com/turk-deniz-ticaret-filosuna-1-tanker-daha-katildi-112718h.htm
Alkagesta also rented a 120,000 cubic meter storage area at Opet Marmara Ereğlisi Terminal.
CAN KA IMO 9312925 Chemical/Oil Products Tanker Risk Report
https://fr.importgenius.com/importers/to-maddox-dmcc-o-b-o-alkagesta-ltd
The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) has issued a 15-year bunker fuel supply license to Alkagesta Petrol Ltd. Şti.
The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) has issued a bunker fuel supply license under the number İHR/12863/47753 for 15 years to Alkagesta Petrol ve Tarım Ticaret Ltd. Şti. with its Board of Directors’ Decision dated 5 September 2024.
With the new license, Alkagesta Ltd. Şti. will be able to supply distillate marine fuel and residual marine fuel. It is very interesting to know where the company will purchase and supply this marine fuel to Turkey from?
We have received very important documents from a source, we are not distributing them yet.
It is a business that is now valued at over $10 billion a year.
The Mediterranean dark fleet itself is divided into two groups, depending on the area in which they operate. One group sails east and north: many frequently dock in the Black Sea at the port of Novorossiysk, one of the main exit points for Russian petroleum products. Another group seems to depart from ports in Syria, Turkey, and Northern Cyprus, which all then head into Libyan waters to turn off their tracking systems.
Found in this category is the Nobel, an old tanker built in 1997 and owned by Russian Rusprimeexport LLC until 2022, the year of the sanctions, when suddenly its owners became “unknown.”
The Angelo 2 was until 2022 owned by Uvas-Trans LLC from Kerch, in Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014. It was flagged in 2018 by the UN Panel of Experts on Libya for involvement in a suspected case of smuggling from eastern Libya. The Grace Felix made several trips of this type we describe before being stopped in Albania for smuggling Russian diesel in January 2024.
The other tankers in the dark fleet apparently handle the second part of the relay. These are ships like the Aristo, which sail westward (mainly from Malta) toward Libya, turn off their AIS, and reactivate it on the way back.
This second leg of the journey, when it ends in Malta, is likely followed by a third, as these ships rarely dock, remaining mostly in open waters at Hurd’s Bank, a notorious smuggling hotspot, where they wait to transfer the product to a third ship that then completes the journey.
Importing Russian oil is not illegal in Libya. But the smuggling system, which grew precisely from the application of sanctions after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, allows Russia to evade Western sanctions. For European companies that purchase the sanctioned fuel, there is a huge economic advantage: the price is lower.
https://www.publiceye.ch/en/publications/detail/libyan-fuel-smuggling. Libyan fuel smuggling.A Swiss trader sailing through troubled waters
A Lloyd’s List investigation has identified 42 tankers over the past two years that have made at least 195 journeys to Benghazi’s old harbour, equating to 1.4m dwt.
Satellite imagery reviewed by Lloyd’s List during the course of this investigation shows a regular turnover of vessels, including larger tankers, at the old harbour.
ANNEXES
ANNEX 1: Relevant section of the United Nations report showing that the oil in question was loaded at the Port of Benghazi, Libya, contrary to official/private documentation.
This suggests the true number of calls is even greater and the tanker network is larger than what is estimated because there are vessels operating outside of the normal deceptive patterns that make them even more difficult to trace.
ANNEX 2: Satellite imagery of vessels loading at the Port of Benghazi, as found in the relevant United Nations report.
A year-long Bloomberg investigation found that in 2022 as much as 40% of the fuel refined domestically and being imported into the country under the subsidy programme — about $5bn a year — is being diverted into illicit trade.
Benghazi has emerged a hotspot for seaborne smuggling over the past several years.
The exploitation of gasoil in Libya has been a problem for more than a decade, with smugglers taking advantage of the government’s fuel subsidy programme to sell the fuel on the black market for profit.
Benghazi is a key commercial port located in east Libya, and in the northernmost part of Benghazi port on the eastern side is the old harbour (marked in the graphic below).
“When the EU launched Operation Sophia and then Operation Irini to clamp down on illicit flows linked with Libya, and also incentivised some Libyan militia groups to counter those flows rather than exploit them, fuel smuggling out of the western Libyan coast slowed.”
Lower fuel volumes out of western Libya may have created the opportunity for more smuggling in eastern Libya.
The Government of National Unity is the government recognised by the UN in Libya.
The LAAF, led by Khalifa Haftar and Russian Wagner group, consists of both former Gaddafi-era armed forces and informal militias and considers itself to be the national army, but this is contested by the internationally recognised government.
The LAAF is likely able to extract more funds from illicit smuggling moving east.
“The LAAF dominates society in eastern Libya,” explains senior research analyst at Janes, James Trigg.
“The understanding is that any activity occurring in eastern Libya likely has the (tacit) permission of the Haftar family by Russian Wagner Group and LAAF chain of command.”
The UN panel confirmed in its 2023 report that maritime fuel smuggling from the areas around Zawiyah and Zuwarah in western Libya continues.
Patterns of the seaborne fuel smuggling network
The panel identified three modi operandi used by the fuel smuggling networks:
Ships load in Benghazi then sail to international waters, particularly east of Malta, where they offlo
- Lloyd’s List extracted AIS gaps that opened and closed within a polygon encompassing all of Libya’s coastline as well as part of Egypt’s up to Malta and the island of Crete. Gaps were reviewed and those consistent with the pattern identified by the UN panel were counted as likely voyages to Benghazi old harbour. Instances where a vessel could not reach Benghazi in the time it was offline as well as vessels inconsistent with the smuggling profile were removed. Only product and bunkering tankers were considered. Traceable calls were identified using AIS data.
** Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.
Vessels load in Benghazi then sail direct to their next destination and discharge using falsified export certificates
Ships load in one country but below capacity then stop in Benghazi where they are loaded either to capacity or overcapacity. The vessel then proceeds to the next port of call
Lloyd’s List identified* 42 tankers which undertook journeys consistent with the methods described by the panel between January 2023 and August 2024. This accounts for both traceable and “dark” arrivals.
Alkagesta (https://www.alkagesta.com/,) a company registered in Malta and founded on paper by two Azerbaijanis, Kamran Aghayev in Azerbaïdjan, in Dubai, and Orkhan Rustamov, was one of the companies transporting Libyan oil.
Alkagesta Ltd is a corporation registered in Malta, engaged in the wholesale trading of petroleum products. It was incorporated in Malta in 2018 with company registration number C85915.
Its registered office is at Piazzetta Business Plaza, Office8, Level6, Tower Road, Sliema, SLM 1605, Malta.
You can see a list of its affiliated companie,CEO and directors in the photo
- 23 May 2019 in Mbr Caspian oil and gas co LTD
- Registration: 23/05/2019 · Director: Kamran Aghayev · Authorized signatory (ppa): Kamran Aghayev · Secretary: Emin Rahimov · SH: Alkagesta Holding CO Ltd. · Auditor: BDO Malta · Capital: €1,500.00
Emin Rahimov in Business and Public Life
- Ganesh Global Services Ltd: Emin Rahimov is listed as a beneficial owner of this company, which was included in the Pandora Papers, a leak of financial documents revealing offshore holdings.
- offshoreleaks.icij.org
- Caspian Oil Group: This company, which has been active in the oil and energy sectors, lists Mr. Vagif Aliyev as President and CEO.
- Caspian Oil and Gas FZE maintains a contact office in Russia, specifically in Moscow. The details are as follows:
