China refuses to accept tankers with Russian oil after new US sanctions
Three tankers carrying more than 2 million barrels of Russian oil are floating in the waters off the coast of east China and cannot be unloaded after the United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's largest oil companies on Friday, 10 January.
Source: Bloomberg
Details: The Huihai Pacific was due to arrive in Dongjiakou in Shandong province on 15 January after loading almost 770,000 barrels of ESPO crude oil from the Russian Pacific port of Kozmino earlier this month. However, it changed course over the weekend and is now parked at sea with the oil on board.
According to Bloomberg, this vessel, along with many others, has been subjected to the most aggressive package of measures aimed at Russian oil exports since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Another tanker, the Mermar, left Kozmino on 5 January with more than 755,000 barrels of ESPO on board and was due to call at the port of Yantai this week, but is now waiting off the coast.
The Olia left the Russian port on 7 January with almost 709,000 barrels of the same grade and was also bound for Yantai but is now in the Yellow Sea.
The tankers are not offloading days after Shandong Port Group Co., which operates several ports in the province, called on terminals to stop allowing sanctioned oil tankers to dock or unload cargo.
Background:
- The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed sanctions on two of Russia's largest oil companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as ship insurance providers Ingosstrakh and AlfaStrakhovanie.
- According to the Financial Times, the measures include the blacklisting of 183 ships of the "shadow fleet" involved in energy exports from Russia.
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