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A new study by Poten & Partners has found that India has become the destination for the most seaborne Russian crude oil since the latter country attacked Ukraine in February of last year. Jasmina Ovcina Mandra reports in Offshore Energy:
India has become the largest seaborne importer of Russian crude in the wake of the EU ban on seaborne oil imports and subsequent G7 price cap for exports.
Exports to India increased from virtually nothing prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to 1.2 Mb/d in November last year, according to Poten & Partners. The volumes of exports eased slightly in December 2022.
India is followed by China, which has increased its intake of Russian crude, from around 600 Kb/d in the beginning of the year to around 940 Kb/d in November.
“While India is targeting mostly European barrels from the Black Sea and some from the Baltic, China has focused on the Russian exports from the Far East. Currently, China buys almost all crude exported from Kozmino as other traditional customers Korea and Japan reduced their imports. Turkey initially increased its purchases from the Kremlin, but its imports of Russian crude have fallen by more than 50% since peaking in August,” Poten said.
The exact data on the shift in exports are not available as transparency of the Russian trade flow data has been reduced due to the conflict, sanctions, and the increased use of ship-to-ship transfers as well as ‘going dark’ by shutting off vessels’ AIS responder to hide their destination.
The sanctions have also resulted in greater use of the “shadow fleet”, basically older vessels plucked from near-retirement that are being used to circumvent western sanctions. These vessels are predominately owned by offshore companies in countries with more lenient shipping rules. The result of this trend has been an “ageing” of the tanker fleet calling on Russian ports.
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