Aerial view of a ship at sea.
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Oil-related shipping costs rose after last week's announcement of tightening US sanctions to drain Russia's war coffers, in a move that poses major threats to Moscow's maritime distribution chains.
On January 10, the US Treasury Department Announce New measures to drain Russia's energy revenues, including sanctions on major producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, along with 183 ships that were “mostly oil tankers forming part of the shadow fleet as well as oil tankers owned by fleet operators in Russia.”
The Treasury Department added that several of the designated tankers transported Russian and Iranian oil, and expanded sanctions to include Russia-based marine insurers Ingosstrakh Insurance and AlfaStrakhovanie Group.
This is set to deal a decisive blow to Russia, which was forced to redirect its supplies of crude oil and petroleum products to the Asia-Pacific region, after these quantities were blocked under European and G7 sanctions, which came into force in December 2022 and February 2023, respectively. .
Already, about 890 unique tankers have loaded Russian oil — which includes both crude oil and petroleum products — in the past six months, analytics firm Vortexa told CNBC on Jan. 7, with 107 of those vessels — or 12% of the total — under vessels. . -Specific penalties at that time.
The numbers do not take into account the January 10 announcement. The Paris-based International Energy Agency said on Wednesday It estimated that about 160 of the 183 banned tankers transported more than 1.6 million barrels per day of Russian oil last year, accounting for 22% of Russian seaborne exports during the period.
The latest US actions are also set to reduce the number of ships available to non-Russian commissions, leading to higher shipping costs for other carriers. Since the January 10 announcement, the impact of the ban has spread to freight derivatives, where the volume of freight forward agreement contracts traded – which can allow traders to hedge against fluctuations in volatile freight rates – jumped to 11,412 in January. January 10, and exceeded 7,900 and 6,700 on January 13 and 14, respectively, according to data from the Baltic Stock Exchange. These numbers compare with the 2,987 and 1,683 contracts traded daily on average in November and December, respectively.
Rates for supertankers crossing from the Middle East and Gulf to the Asia-Pacific region – a leading route for the oil industry – rose more than 40% between January 9 and 14, according to pricing data from Argus Media.
As a result, the International Energy Agency warned that the sanctions “could significantly disrupt Russian oil supply and distribution chains,” noting that Russian exports “would be harmed by the reduction of the shadow oil tanker fleet” and “the elimination of shipping insurance, which restrains dominant companies.” Russian oil traders and major handling companies in consumer markets.”
However, the agency failed to take the latest US steps into account in its forecast for Russian supplies, while noting that crude oil exports from the Eastern European country – a key member of the OPEC+ alliance – fell by 250,000 barrels per day on a monthly basis to 4.6 million barrels. barrels per day in December.
