A 346-meter-long tanker, vital to Russian Arctic oil exports, has essentially "disappeared" from ship tracking systems.

The operators of the Kola suggest that the floating storage unit (FSU) has been relocated from Kola Bay to West Africa, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Since 2017, the vessel (IMO 9217979) has been based in Kola Bay, where it has operated as an FSU for Arctic oil. Hundreds of shipments have been made from Lukoil’s Varandey terminal on the remote Nenets coast to Kola Bay, where the oil has been transferred to the Kola and subsequently exported to international markets.

Over the years, millions of tonnes of Russian Arctic oil have passed through the 25-year-old floating storage unit.

The vessel has been located near Cape Filinsky, a few kilometres north of Murmansk, directly across the bay from Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet.

However, according to ship tracking services, the Kola is no longer present in Kola Bay. Since early 2025, the FSU has effectively “disappeared” from the map.

Instead, the 346-metre-long tanker — with a deadweight of 309,327 tonnes and a gross tonnage of 157,883 — is now shown as being located in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of Togo.

The apparent “relocation” coincided with the imposition of US sanctions against the vessel and its owners.

“The United States is taking sweeping action against Russia’s key source of revenue for funding its brutal and illegal war against Ukraine,” then Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in connection with the sanctions announced on 10 January 2025. She was replaced days later by Scott Bessent, appointed by Donald J. Trump.

Despite the GPS signals, the Kola is not located in West Africa.

Satellite imagery indicates that the FSU has never left Kola Bay. The tanker remains at its previous location near Cape Filinsky.

Images from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem show that transshipment of Arctic oil from the FSU continues as before.

As with other shadow fleet vessels, the owners and operators of the Kola appear to be making deliberate efforts to obscure its location, name and ownership.

The vessel’s coordinates have been manipulated.

According to the shipping database Equasis, the FSU has changed its flag state six times since 2023, and its name has been changed three times.

Its current name is listed as Lotta, according to Equasis.

Ownership has also changed repeatedly. It is now recorded as “Rptd Sold Undisclosed Interest”, a term used when the buyer or seller is not publicly disclosed.

Prior to 2025, the FSU was owned by LK Volga LLC, an entity linked to Lukoil and its Varandey terminal.

In July 2025, Lukoil established OOO LTTA, a maritime freight company registered in Murmansk.

Given the similarity in names, it is likely that OOO LTTA is the current operator of the FSU Lotta.

Lukoil and its subsidiary OOO LTTA may also be in the process of acquiring a new FSU in Kola Bay. In early 2026, the company announced public hearings on “an offshore transhipment complex in the waters of the Port of Murmansk”.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli