(Bloomberg) — A week after Washington rolled out its harshest sanctions to date on tankers carrying Russian oil, shippers already appear to be moving quickly but stealthily to rebuild disrupted supply chains.
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One example may be the tanker Bhilva. The vessel — which wasn’t targeted in the fresh curbs — had been bound for India’s west coast when it made a dramatic u-turn in the middle of the Indian Ocean on Monday, ship-tracking data show. Now, the unladen vessel is sailing in the opposite direction, heading for the Russian port of Kozmino, said shipbrokers. It is expected to arrive on Jan. 31.
The wave of sanctions has already sent tremors through the global crude market, spurring gains in futures prices, lifting freight rates, and forcing customers across Asia to consider alternatives to Russian crude if Moscow can’t keeping shipments running. Moreover, a further round of turbulence may be imminent as Donald Trump’s second term as US president starts next week.
In Russia’s Far East, Kozmino — the maritime gateway for flows of ESPO grade oil — is among the hardest hit Russian crude-export route after close to 80% of the tanker fleet recently serving the port was struck by sanctions. More than 30 cargoes of the grade load every month, with almost all shipments going to China. Now, with just a handful of vessels left to serve the trade, flows are at risk of being slashed, with freight rates more than tripling.
READ: Key Russian Oil Trades Risk Wipeout After Sweeping US Sanctions
Checks on Bhilva’s history show that the 15-year old Panama-flagged suezmax vessel has not handled any Russian crude since the war in Ukraine erupted in 2022, according to data from Bloomberg and Kpler. Shipbrokers said the tanker was a possible example of a fresh wave of ships entering the sensitive trade after Jan. 10, when the Biden administration sanctioned more than 180 vessels.
The vessel is the only ship owned by Seychelles-based Tika Shipping Ltd, according to maritime database Equasis, and managed by a company in Shanghai, China. Tika Shipping doesn’t have an online presence or website. Vessels can continue to access western services if the Russian oil in question is priced under the $60-a-barrel cap set by G-7 countries.
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Washington’s move effectively disrupted a large chunk of the logistics and supply chain on which Moscow has come to depend, as well as further complicating tasks for traders who have sustained Russian exports to major importers in China and India. This week, the International Energy Agency warned that the curbs could “significantly disrupt” Russian supply and distribution networks, citing the impact on shipping in particular.
In a bid to maintain ESPO exports with a much-shrunken fleet of willing ships, some vessels have also started to do shorter voyages to locations such as South Korean anchorage points near Yeosu or Busan, where they will transfer cargoes to another tanker before rushing back to Kozmino to reload.
Aframax tanker Apar — a Djibouti-flagged vessel that also goes by the name of Andromeda Star — is currently fully laden with a cargo of ESPO and idled off Busan, where its movement patterns suggest a possible ship-to-ship transfer, shiptracking data show. It had picked up ESPO from Kozmino on Jan. 10.
–With assistance from Weilun Soon.
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