New sanctions… How do they affect Russia’s oil supplies to China and India?
On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Russian oil production companies Gazprom Neft and Surgut Oil and Gas, in addition to 183 tankers working in shipping Russian oil, targeting revenues that Moscow uses to finance its war with Ukraine.
Russia used many of these ships to transport oil to India and China after Western sanctions and a price ceiling imposed by the Group of Seven major industrialized countries in 2022 diverted the path of Russian oil trade from Europe to Asia. Some of those ships also transported oil from Iran, which is also subject to sanctions.
Two Chinese trade sources told Reuters that Russian oil exports will be severely affected by the new sanctions, which will force independent Chinese refiners to reduce their production later.
Matt Wright, senior shipping analyst at Kpler, said in a note that among the ships imposed on the most recent sanctions, there are 143 oil tankers that handled more than 530 million barrels of Russian crude last year, or about 42 percent of the country’s total exports of transported crude. By sea.
