There are 10 million barrels of Russian oil sitting in the sea off Korea, with no destination
About 10 million barrels of Russian crude remained stranded off the coast of South Korea due to U.S. sanctions, traders and shipping data told Reuters on Friday.
The 10 million barrels of oil, transported by 14 tankers, are of the Sokol variety from Sakhalin-1 and remain unsold due to Western sanctions. This amount represents approximately 45 days of Sakhalin-1 production at an average rate of 220,000 barrels per day.
The ships, including 3 VLCCs (oil tankers approximately 110 meters long), carrying Russian crude oil were stranded for weeks near the port of Yosu, South Korea, after the United States sanctioned several ships and companies carrying the Sokol variety.
Reuters sources and navigation data provided by Kpler and LSEG indicate that the VLCCs, carrying 3.2 million barrels, behaved like a floating repository of unsold oil.
At least some of the Sokol crude was destined for Indian Oil Corp. Delivery delays caused by sanctions-related payment problems have pushed Indian Oil Corp to look for crude elsewhere, mainly in its own warehouses and in the Middle East.
More than a year ago, the United States introduced sanctions and a price cap on Russian crude oil transiting via water. The intent was not to stop the flow of oil, but to limit the revenue of Russia, which would otherwise use the crude to finance its military operations in Ukraine. The Biden administration has insisted that the G7 sanctions and price caps have been effective, despite accusations by some that they have been largely ineffective. In reality, as always, the truth seems to be halfway between the two positions: the sanctions have not made transactions impossible, but, in some cases, they have made them much more complicated.
In December, the Kyiv School of Economics estimated that Moscow would earn $178 billion from oil sales in 2023 and predicted that this figure would increase in 2024. According to the Energy and Clean Air Research Center, the Import bans and price caps cost Russia $37 billion in export revenue. “The price cap had an impact, but did not live up to its potential,” CREA analysts said last December.
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The article There are 10 million barrels of Russian oil stuck in the sea in front of Korea, without destination comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/ci-sono-10-milioni-di-barili-di-petrolio-russo-fermi-nel-mare-davanti-alla-corea-senza-destinazione/ on Mon, 29 Jan 2024 08:00:31 +0000.