New Ships and Cargo Transfers Boost Russia’s Crude Oil Exports

By Julian Lee (Bloomberg) —

Russia has amassed new tankers and resorted to ship-to-ship cargo transfers to keep key oil exports flowing. But deliveries to customers remain a problem, with laden vessels forced to idle.

At least five tankers new to the post-sanctions trade helped boost flows from the Pacific port of Kozmino last week. Another six are anchored off the terminal waiting to load.

With new vessels also operating out of Russia’s Baltic ports, and the passing of a storm that caused disruption to flows, Moscow’s four-week average crude exports saw their biggest jump since April.

Flows in the four-week period to Feb. 16 rose to 3.03 million barrels a day, up 7% from the previous week. 

Despite the jump, shippers are still struggling to offload barrels, resulting in an increased use of ship-to-ship transfers to free up specialist shuttle tankers.

Three cargoes of Sokol crude, exported from Sakhalin Island in the country’s east, were switched into the supertanker Daban near the Russian port of Nakhodka. The vessel is now anchored off the Chinese port of Yant…