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Egypt: new hub for the smuggling of Russian oil. Damage in unnecessary penalties

To avoid sanctions and voluntary boycotts, Russia appears to have discovered a new gateway for its crude: Bloomberg reported that Moscow used Egypt's El Hamra oil terminal on the Mediterranean coast for the first time ever.

The first shipment took place on July 24, with 700,000 barrels of oil unloaded before another ship picked up a consignment from the port a few hours later. According to Bloomberg ship tracking data, it is speculated that shipments may have included all or part of Russian crude and / or petroleum products.

According to experts, this unusual move makes it much more difficult to trace the final destination of the cargo, adding to a trend that sees Russian oil shipments increasingly obscured as European and Western buyers began avoiding them following the invasion of Ukraine. by the nation.

El Hamra has six storage tanks with a capacity of 1.5 million barrels, as well as a single buoy mooring facility for loading and unloading. The oil terminal was built to handle the crude produced in Egypt's western desert, which makes it possible to mix Russian barrels with local oil. The famous “blending” is thus obtained, with which Russian oil mixes 49% with other oil to magically transform itself into a different oil.

While Egypt is already used by Russia as a transit route for diesel, it is unclear whether El Hamra was an isolated case or if it will play a more important role in Russian oil flows. Previously, tankers carrying Russian crude carried out ship-to-ship cargo transfers in the middle of the Atlantic or off the Spanish city of Ceuta. This is also an unusual place for such a complicated maneuver, which is usually performed in sheltered and quieter places near the coast.

Bloomberg also reported that another crude cargo transfer appears to have taken place in Johor, near Singapore, in June. Johor is an emerging hot spot for transshipment of Iranian crude oil cargoes bound for China. Russia is working hard to identify and test different routes and ways of delivering its energy products to buyers, of which China and India are the main ones.

In any case, Western sanctions are proving to be increasingly circumvented by international operators. The rules are written to be circumvented.


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The article Egypt: new hub for Russian oil smuggling. The damage in the unnecessary sanctions comes from ScenariEconomici.it .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/legitto-nuovo-hub-per-il-contrabbando-del-petrolio-russo-i-danni-nelle-inutili-sanzioni/ on Thu, 04 Aug 2022 06:00:43 +0000.