A cluster of Russian oil tankers was spotted off the coast of China

Tankers carrying Russian Urals oil have been spotted off Chinaʼs east coast, as India has cut imports due to sanctions.

Bloomberg writes about this.

At least five vessels carrying about 3.4 million barrels of Urals crude are idled in the Yellow Sea due to sanctions against Russia, the largest amount of downtime for the oil in the region in more than five years, the newspaper said.

The ships are docked near Shandong Province, the center of Chinaʼs independent oil refineries.

Bloomberg writes that Chinese refineries usually do not buy Urals oil, which is shipped from western Russian ports. China usually prefers oil from the Russian Far East — a shorter distance and more favorable characteristics for diesel production.

It is not yet known whether the oil in the tankers that have accumulated near China has already been sold. After all, a tanker can leave Russian ports without a specific buyer, but the increase in the number of ships off the coast of China may indicate a change in the export routes of Russian oil.

Sanctions against “Rosneft” and “Lukoil” in recent weeks have forced the Russians to look for new buyers in East Asia. India is expected to import about 800 000 barrels per day in December. For example, in June this amount was 2 million barrels per day.

• On October 23, Donald Trump signed sanctions against two of Russiaʼs largest energy companies, “Lukoil” and “Rosneft”. The sanctions were supposed to take effect on November 23, but on November 15, the restrictions on “Lukoil” were postponed until December 13.
• In early December, the US postponed the introduction of sanctions against Russian oil giant “Lukoil” gas stations located outside the Russian Federation until April 29. “Lukoil” stake in Bulgaria was also exempted from sanctions until April 29. And Hungary was exempted from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas for a year.

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