Tankers sanctioned by the United States in January have been used in recent ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Russian crude on vessels that have ultimately discharged oil in India, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing tanker-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa.
India has become one of the two top buyers of Russian crude alongside China, but it has said it wouldn’t allow sanctioned tankers to discharge crude at its import terminals.
At least three tankers under U.S. sanctions have been detected in recent weeks loading crude from Russia’s Far Eastern terminals, and then transfer the oil to other vessels in Russian or Malaysian waters, according to the data Bloomberg has compiled.
The sanctioned tankers haven’t delivered the crude oil to India themselves, but they have nevertheless been part of the supply chain.
“There will always be an element of calculated risk in Indian imports of Russian crude, but the refiners have mostly played it safe,” Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, told Bloomberg.
“Essentially, they can’t be held accountable for how the crude is transported,” Hari noted.
Indian refiners have said that they would continue to import Russian crude oil in compliance with the G7 price cap and sanctions.
Preliminary data showed last week that India is on track to import nearly 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Russia in May, which would be a 10-month high.
Indian refiners have increased buying activity for lighter Russian grades, such as ESPO, showed Kpler data cited by Reuters.
Kpler said last week it is “neutral to bullish on India’s crude imports from Russia, with more tankers joining the fleet to transport Russian cargoes.”
Russian exports to India began to recover in March after the U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil trade in January shocked the market and traders moved to readjust flows to the use of more non-sanctioned tankers.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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