it is selling as much oil as it was before the war, and that is as a result of this circumvention, big british firms like bp and shell are buying this jet fuel. bp said. shell told us. while the uk government said. refining energy in a third country changes its legal origin.
might have effectively bought in more than two million barrels of russian energy indirectly, depite the ban. now, this is not a breach of the letter of the sanctions. it s certainly not illegal. but it does raise a question of whether this is a loophole in the sanctions regime that needs to be closed, and not just by the uk. here s emir with the story. we are here in southern greece. the picturesque laconia golf is a home to fishermen and an international tourist destination. but all is not as it seems. we are here to see how this idyllic location has now become a key artery for russian oil. the area is packed with huge tankers. we area is packed with huge tankers. we are just leaving greek territorial waters and we are approaching a number of tankers that have left russia and we believe they are here to exchange russian crude. and here
they are, we find two tankers in the middle of a ship to ship transfer. these two boats you can see behind me are oil tankers. the boat in the distance is from russia and is moving oil to the boat nearest to us. here in international waters, this practice is legal and is one way in which russian oil continues to be exported throughout the world, often with the help of western shipping companies. and some of the millions of barrels of oil that passes through this area will ultimately find its way to countries that have bans on russian oil including the uk. industry data confirms what we see russian crude has picked up here to be transferred onwards to places like turkey and india. bbc newsnight has had exclusive access to figures calculated by the environmental campaign group global witness. since a ban on importing russian energy was imported by the uk with the g7 and eu injanuary, the numbers show the amount of russian energy that
substantial and economically justified processing in that jurisdiction. so the government have told us that if the energy imported in this way is refined in a third country like india, it doesn t matter if it is 30, 50, 100% based on russian crude, it is no longer russian. and the government can say they have ended all imports of russian energy. they have ended all imports of russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up call russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up call for russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up call for us - russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up call for us and - russian energy. these new figures are a wake-up call for us and for i are a wake up call for us and for everybody. russia is using the refining loopholes to sell oil to those countries. and so are our allies, including the uk. they need to close these loopholes that russia is using to sell its oil. and we call on our partners
has been processed in indian refineries and made its way to the uk legally since then. the figures have been reviewed by bbc verify and shown to independent experts. so how does this russian energy still get to us? travelling thousands of miles by tanker to three refineries in india including the well s biggest refinery. here, the crude oil is mixed from products from other sources and refined into diesel. across the three refineries, russian oil makes up around 45% of what goes into the final product. in the six months following january this year, the uk imported 6.2 million barrels of refined energy from these three refineries, of which an estimated 2.33 million barrels was made with russian crude. the diesel is used to power uk planes. the figures are equivalent to one in eight of our flights, using fuel from these refineries. one in 20 british flights being powered purely by russian crude. so how much is this