More than 100 tankers have been purchased to transport Russian oil to India, China and Turkey in defiance of European Union (EU) sanctions. About this on Saturday, December 3, the newspaper writes Financial Times, referring to market experts.
Russia is forming a “shadow fleet” of tankers to ease oil sanctions.
The authors of the material claim that up to 109 tankers were purchased for these purposes. At the same time, the number of unnamed or new buyers increased in the registries. As noted, these tankers are from 12 to 15 years old, they were planned to be decommissioned in the next few years. Anoop Singh, head of research at Braemar, told the publication.
According to him, brokers are not familiar with these buyers. He suggests that these tankers may be destined for Russia. A similar opinion was expressed at the Harvard Davis Center. According to Craig Kennedy, an expert on Russian oil, all the acquired vessels were already in Russia after some time.
Kennedy added that the oil shortage could begin by February 2023, as sanctions will apply to oil products from Russian-made raw materials at that time. In this case, in his opinion, Russia will have to buy much more sea vessels in order to maintain the same supply volumes.
On December 1, it became known that the cost of chartering ships to deliver Russian oil began to rise sharply in price, as more tanker owners refuse to ship before new EU sanctions come into force. It is explained that companies that are ready to ship Russian oil tend to charge a large fee for this, as they are at great risk during transportation.
Experts note that several factors influenced the increase in rates. The key ones are the reduction in available vessels, as well as the reorientation of sea supplies from the traditional European market to the Asian one.
On December 2, the G7 countries and Australia agreed on a ceiling price for Russian oil of $60 per barrel. The new policy will take effect December 5th. On the same day, the EU member states reached an agreement on the maximum price for Russian energy resources. The bloc settled at $60, despite the fact that the Baltic states and Poland insisted on $30.
On December 3, Alexander Frolov, Deputy General Director of the National Energy Institute, spoke in an interview with Izvestia about how the introduction of a price ceiling for Russian oil would affect the world market. According to the specialist, the adopted measure will give the EU the opportunity to amend the sanctions and allow its companies to transport Russian oil, if Russia, of course, agrees to sell it at a set price.
Back in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would not act contrary to common sense and supply energy resources to countries at prices set by them. The head of state also recalled that there are no guarantees that the practice of the “price ceiling” will not be extended to other industries and will be applied not only against Russia.
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