With European Union sanctions on Russian oil coming into force earlier this week, the huge tankers loaded at terminals in the Kola Bay are forced to find new markets. Like the “Surgut”, a Suezmax 120,000 tons Sovcomflot tanker currently sailing south along the coast of Norway.
Instead of heading to Rotterdam, the Liberian-flagged Russian-owned tanker has Mumbai, India as final destination. Sailing distance is more than 9,100 nautical miles and will take about 38 days. But first the supertanker heads to the Suez Canal. […]
India, China and Turkey are now the biggest buyers of displaced Russian crude oil.
India has since the start of the war imported oil from Russia at discounted rates. New Delhi has also declared intentions to boost bilateral trade with Russia and Rosneft’s huge Arctic Vostok Oil project could see investments by India. According to vessel tracking data monitored by Bloomberg, India has since March, April boosted its oil import from Russia up to about one million barrels a day, nearly the same amount as the EU’s pre-war import. […]
As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the Russian ice-classed oil tanker “Vasily Dinkov” this autumn made a test voyage along the Northern Sea Route to the Chinese port of Rizhao.
With Asia as the main market, it will be interesting to see how Russia will take advantage of the short-cut Arctic route next summer instead of sailing the more than 9,000 nautical miles detour via Suez. Läs artikel