Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 28, 2025
5 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Sanctions have stalled Russian oil trade with China and India, raising shipping costs and reducing imports. Both countries seek alternative supplies.
By Siyi Liu, Chen Aizhu and Nidhi Verma
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Trade for March-loading Russian oil in top buyer Asia has stalled as a wide price gap between buyers and sellers emerged in China after costs for chartering tankers unaffected by U.S. sanctions jumped, according to traders and shipping data.
Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Jan. 10 targeting Russia's oil supply chain, causing tanker freight rates to soar as some buyers and ports in China and India steered clear of sanctioned ships.
Offers for March Russian ESPO Blend crude exported from the Pacific port of Kozmino jumped to premiums of $3-$5 a barrel to ICE Brent on a delivered ex-ship basis (DES) to China after freight rates for an Aframax tanker on the route surged by several million dollars, three traders familiar with the grade said.
Prior to the January sanctions, robust winter demand and firming prices for rival grades from Iran sent spot premiums for ESPO Blend crude to China rising to close to $2 a barrel, the highest since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, the aftermath of which had sent discounts to as deep as $6.
In India, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's finance chief told Reuters last week that it has not received any new offers for March delivery, as it would ordinarily have, and expects the number of cargoes offered for March to drop from January and December.
India typically receives offers for Russian crude during the middle of each month.
Russian crude accounted for 36% of India's and nearly a fifth of China's 2024 imports.
The latest sanctions target tankers that carry about 42% of Russia's seaborne oil exports, primarily to China, according to analytics firm Kpler, although sanctioned tankers are gradually discharging oil in China and India during a waiver period.
The U.S. clarified to India that tankers loaded with Russian oil must discharge by Feb. 27 under the sanctions, India's oil secretary Pankaj Jain told reporters on Friday. Payments for oil onboard affected ships must be cleared by March 12, he added.
PORT DELAYS
In China, newly sanctioned tankers face delays offloading oil despite meeting waiver requirements. Three of them discharged Russian ESPO and Sokol crude during Jan. 15-17 while tanker Olia offloaded at Shandong's Yantai port on Sunday after carrying its ESPO cargo for nearly three weeks, according to LSEG data.
Tanker Huihai Pacific is still waiting to discharge at Tianjin after loading its ESPO cargo on Jan. 5 while Viktor Titov is heading to Qingdao after loading Sokol on Jan. 6, LSEG data showed.
In India, nine newly sanctioned tankers have discharged oil since Jan. 10, with several carrying Urals crude on the way, LSEG data showed.
U.S. sanctions and a ban imposed early this month by China's Shandong Port Group will see refineries in Shandong province losing up to 1 million barrels per day of crude supply in the near term, consultancy FGE said.
Independent refiners are cutting runs as alternative supply is more costly, it said, expecting 400,000 bpd run cuts by February.
Kpler senior analyst Xu Muyu expects China's imports of Russian Far East crude to remain low in coming weeks after falling to a six-month low of 717,000 bpd last week.
For India, FGE said the country faces disruptions in 450,000 bpd of Russian crude supply, but refiners are taking advantage of the wind-down period.
India has been experiencing lower Russian supply over December and January compared to the preceding six months.
Indian refiners have sought alternative supply from the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. for March and April as they expect Russian supply to tighten, Reuters has reported.
U.S.-sanctioned tankers at China
Name Loadin Volume (thousand Crude Discharge date Discharge Status
g date metric tons) grade port
ZALIV BAIKAL 1/11/2 80 SOKOL 1/17/2025 Yantai,
025 Shandong
NIKOLAY ZADORNOV 1/8/20 80 SOKOL 1/26/2025 Yantai,
25 Shandong
MERMAR 1/6/20 80 ESPO 1/27/2025 Longkou,
25 Shandong
OLIA 1/8/20 80 ESPO 1/26/2025 Yantai,
25 Shandong
VESNA 12/5/2 26.72 ESPO Zhejiang awaiting for
024 discharge
HUIHAI PACIFIC 1/5/20 80 ESPO Tianjin awaiting for
25 discharge
ZALIV VOSTOK 1/21/2 80 Sakhalin Gulei underway
025 Blend
VIKTOR TITOV 1/6/20 80 Sokol Qingdao underway
25
MIN HANG 11/16/ 120 Urals China underway
2024
U.S.-sanctioned tankers at India
VOSTOCHNY PROSPECT 12/18/ 100 Urals 1/26/2025 Paradip
2024
TYCHE 1 12/18/ 100 Urals 1/22/2025 Jamnagar
2024 (Sikka)
MERCURY 12/14/ 140 Urals 1/20/2025 Paradip
2024
ZENITH 12/20/ 99.69 Urals 1/20/2025 Jamnagar
2024 (Sikka)
SAGITTA 12/13/ 100 Urals 1/16/2025 Mundra
2024
CORUM 12/16/ 99.97 Urals 1/16/2025 New
2024 Mangalore
ARJUN 12/7/2 100 Urals 1/12/2025 Vadinar
024
ZALIV AMURSKIY 12/14/ 100 Urals 1/12/2025 Jamnagar
2024 (Sikka)
AQUATICA 12/26/ 100 Urals 1/25/2025 Jamnagar
2024 (Sikka)
AQUILA II 12/25/ 140 Urals Visakhapat discharging
2024 nam
OKEANSKY PROSPECT 12/28/ 100 Urals Jamnagar awaiting for
2024 (Sikka) discharge
VLADIMIR MONOMAKH 1/2/20 100 Urals Vadinar underway
25
SUN 1/6/20 130 Urals Mundra underway
25
VLADIMIR VINOGRADOV 1/1/20 100 Urals Vadinar underway
25
Source: LSEG
Note: all the tankers are listed on the Jan.10 OFAC sanction list, data complied on January 28, 2025
(Reporting by Florence Tan, Siyi Liu, Chen Aizhu in Singapore and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
The stall in Russian oil trade is primarily due to a wide price gap between buyers and sellers in China, exacerbated by fresh U.S. sanctions that have driven up shipping costs.
The sanctions imposed on January 10 have caused tanker freight rates to soar, making it more expensive for buyers in China and India to import Russian oil.
Russian crude accounted for 36% of India's and nearly a fifth of China's oil imports for 2024.
Indian refiners are seeking alternative oil supplies from the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. for March and April, as they expect Russian supply to tighten.
Refineries in China's Shandong province are expected to lose up to 1 million barrels per day of crude supply due to U.S. sanctions and a ban by the Shandong Port Group.
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