Bloomberg: Russian oil tankers idle for months due to sanctions
The US can disrupt Moscow's oil supply chain if it wants to
Almost every Russian oil tanker that has been subject to US sanctions has been idle for several months.
Source. Bloomberg writes about this.
The publication notes that 40 Russian vessels came under US sanctions in the autumn of 2023. As a rule, the reason for the imposition of sanctions was a violation of the price limit on oil from Russia.
Bloomberg writes that only one of the sanctioned tankers, SCF Primorye, has picked up its cargo at the port and is heading to Asia.
According to the newspaper, this effect may indicate that the US "can disrupt Moscow's oil supply chain if it wants to".
It is noted that only a small part of the "shadow fleet" is currently under restrictions, which was created with the help of proxy companies of the Russian Federation to circumvent international restrictions.
In 2022, the Group of Seven (G7) countries, the European Union and Australia imposed a price ceiling on Russian oil of $60 per barrel. The restrictions, imposed because of Russia's war against Ukraine, prohibit companies from transporting and insuring Russian oil sold at more than this price.
However, at the end of 2022, the Financial Times reported that Russia had formed a "shadow fleet" of old tankers to transport oil to India, China and Turkey, bypassing Western sanctions.
At the time, it consisted of more than a hundred vessels. In the summer of 2023, Bloomberg wrote that Western companies continued to purchase Russian Urals oil in violation of the price ceiling. Later, Washington promised to monitor compliance with Russian oil prices more strictly.
Background. It has been reported that commercial shipping has been banned off Greece due to military manoeuvres in the area considered to be the main place to circumvent sanctions against Russian oil exports.
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