Three tankers carrying more than 2 million barrels of Russian oil have stopped near the ports of eastern China as they fell under US sanctions announced on Friday, writes Bloomberg.
According to the company Kpler, which specializes in collecting data on commodity markets, the vessel Huihai Pacific was supposed to arrive at the port of Dongjiakou in Shandong province on January 15 after loading almost 770 thousand barrels of crude oil from the Russian Pacific port of Kozmino earlier this month. However, over the weekend it changed course and is now anchored offshore. The vessel Mermar departed from Kozmino on January 5 with more than 755 thousand barrels of oil and was due to enter the port of Yantai this week, but is now also waiting offshore. Olia left the Russian port on January 7 with nearly 709 thousand barrels of oil and was also heading to Yantai, but is now in the Yellow Sea.
The Chinese company Shandong Port Group, which manages several ports in the province, has urged terminals to stop accepting and unloading sanctioned oil tankers.
On January 10, the US announced the most powerful package of sanctions against the Russian energy sector, which included the largest oil companies "Gazprom Neft" and "Surgutneftegaz", 183 vessels from the "shadow fleet", dozens of oil traders, oil industry service providers, insurance companies, and energy sector officials.
According to Kpler, the latest sanctions affected tankers accounting for about 42% of Russia's maritime oil exports, mainly to China.