Bloomberg: Russian oil tanker reaches port in China after 'long and winding' trip
Photo: Vesselfinder

A cargo of Russian oil from Rosneft, which is under US sanctions, has reached China after a "long and winding trip" including a rare transshipment near India and a brief stop near South Korea. This was reported by Bloomberg.

According to vessel-tracking data collected by the agency, the tanker Fortis, carrying about 700,000 barrels of oil, anchored off the port of Rizhao on China’s east coast on December 9. Bloomberg noted that all but one of the port’s import berths have been blacklisted by the United States for their role in handling Iranian oil.

It remains unclear whether the tanker will discharge its cargo in Rizhao.

The shipment initially traveled aboard the tanker Ailana, which in late September loaded about 720,000 barrels from the Russian tanker Ust-Luga in the Baltic Sea. Ailana then sailed through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to India, arriving and anchoring near Mumbai in late October.

Almost two weeks later, Ailana transshipped oil to Fortis at sea. Fortis reported that the cargo was headed to Kochi in southern India, then allegedly to the port of Ningbo in China, and then to Yeosu, South Korea. Kpler data shows that some of the cargo was reloaded onto another tanker at this stop.

  • october 20 it became known about a rare case of overloading Russian gas at sea between two tankers off the coast of Malaysia.
  • on October 22, the United States of America imposed sanctions against the two largest Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, and called on Russia to immediately agree to a ceasefire.
  • According to the Foreign Intelligence Service, Russia's losses from oil sanctions will reach $50 billion a year. This is generally in line with the assessments of Western partners, who published president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ($5 billion per month).