The delivery of a two-million-barrel cargo of Russian oil to China took seven times longer than it would have done prior to a round of US sanctions imposed on Moscow back in January.
The drawn out delivery of Sokol crude from Russia’s Sakhalin 1 project into Chinese storage tanks shows how US sanctions continue to disrupt and impede — but importantly not halt — the flow of Russian oil.
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The Daban, a so-called Very Large Crude Carrier, is discharging its cargo at Huangdao port in China more than seven weeks after the oil was first loaded onto shuttle tankers, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. It would normally take about a week.
The Daban received its cargo via three ship-to-ship transfers from smaller vessels in the sheltered waters of Nakhodka Bay off Russia’s Pacific coast during the first 10 days of February.
Digital signals from the Daban indicate that, after receiving the consignments, it was unable to dock at two other Chinese ports before going to Huangdao.
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The market is watching how Russian oil gets delivered closely because sanctions by the outgoing Biden administration were more aggressive than any that went before. The early signs are that exports are being maintained, but there’s been disruption and delay of some deliveries.
In the Baltic Sea, another tanker has been waiting for about a month having loaded a cargo. That’s a fairly unusual — but not unique — turn of events.
Ten Days
The Daban spent 10 days anchored off the port of Yantai before heading along the coast to Rizhao at the end of February. After spending a further 10 days there, it moved to Huangdao, where it moored on Thursday.
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The oil was carried to the Daban by three shuttle tankers sanctioned by the US on Jan. 10. In a wide-ranging move, the outgoing Biden administration targeted 161 tankers, as well as two major Russian oil producers and exporters, traders, insurance companies, and two US oil service providers. The measures also targeted a Chinese oil terminal operator.
The Daban — which isn’t under sanctions — has previously hauled Iranian crude under a different name, tracking data show.
Unusually, neither Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s top shipbroker, nor the Equasis international maritime database have a means of contacting the companies that manage the Daban.
