In the South Korean port of Yeosu, 14 tankers with Russian oil are “stuck”, which ship owners cannot get rid of. The agency reported this on January 26 Reuters with links to traders and shipment information.
Three large tankers (La Balena, Nireta and Nellis) and 11 smaller vessels contain a total of 10 million barrels of Russian Sokol crude oil, which has been unable to be sold for several weeks due to United States sanctions and payment problems. In fact, they are “floating storage facilities for Russian oil.”
The agency calls the current situation one of the most serious disruptions in Russian oil exports in two years of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Sokol is a grade of light Russian oil with an extremely low percentage of sulfur content, produced on the island of Sakhalin (RF), the Sakhalin-1 field. The leading producer of this variety is Rosneft.
The volume of oil stored in tankers stuck in South Korea corresponds to 45 days of production from the Sakhalin-1 project, Reuters emphasizes.
Context:
At the beginning of December 2022, the G7 countries, as well as Australia and the European Union, introduced price restrictions on Russian oil, setting a maximum level of $60 per barrel. From February 5, 2023, these countries introduced a price ceiling on Russian petroleum products: $100 for diesel fuel and $45 for various oils.
Due to restrictions on the price of crude oil, Russia is losing $172 million daily, Bloomberg wrote in August, citing a report by the Helsinki Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). After the restrictions extended to oil products, the Russian Federation will lose even more – $280 million per day, the agency believes.
The United States is looking for ways to complicate the work of the Russian shadow fleet, The Wall Street Journal wrote on December 6.
On December 6, 2023, Bloomberg reported that the Russian Federation’s monthly income from oil exports was greater than before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On December 20, Bloomberg reported, citing a US Treasury official, that Washington would tighten control over compliance with restrictions on export prices of Russian oil. The agency’s interlocutor said that the United States is moving “to the second phase” of price ceiling controls. This, in particular, involves more careful monitoring of compliance with restrictions by suppliers in G7 countries.
2024-01-30 08:11:57
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