Russia Steps Up Covert Cargo Transfers to Keep its Oil Moving

(Bloomberg) —

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year, Moscow is increasingly resorting to clandestine cargo transfers as it wrestles with sanctions and tries to keep its oil exports flowing.

Cargo switches from specialized shuttle tankers and sanctioned ships are helping to maintain flows out of Russia’s ports in the Pacific and Arctic, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Still, shipments dropped sharply in the latest week, and delivering the cargoes to China and India is proving challenging.

About 51 million barrels of crude has been shipped from Russia’s Pacific ports since the latest round of US sanctions on Jan. 10, the tracking data show. Fewer than 39 million barrels have been delivered in the same period and almost one-quarter of those were lifted before the sanctions came into effect. About 9 million barrels remain on tankers that have been idle for at least a week. With much longer delivery times, the impact on flows from western ports is less clear.

A drop in shipments from the Black Sea and the Arctic last week saw four-week average crude shipments from Russian ports in the period to Feb. 23 fall to 2.94 million barrels a day, down by 3% from the period to Feb. 16. 

None of the nine tankers to have left Murmansk after being sanctioned by the US last month has yet discharged its cargo. 

In a sign that sanctions are biting, the first ships to load at Murmansk after being blacklisted by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Jan. 10 should have …