“Russia is trying to build up a shipping fleet,” Harris said during an interview with the American Enterprise Institute. “They produce a lot of oil. It takes a lot of ships to ship seven million barrels a day, and they’re not close to being able to control all of this yet.”
Harris characterized the project as a “ghost fleet” due to its unknown size.
The fleet’s development comes after the United States and other partner nations imposed a price cap on Russian oil products in an attempt to reduce the country’s revenues amid the conflict in Ukraine.
The Treasury Department has not seen evidence of evasion of the price cap by Russia, Harris added.
The Group of Seven (G7) is set to reevaluate the price cap this month to determine if any recalibrations are needed.