A brand new supply of Russian crude has emerged for India – the West Arctic Ocean.
This new exercise which has solely been seen this 12 months, began round March on aframax and suezmax tankers, as knowledge from vitality analytics agency Vortexa exhibits (see chart under).
Aframax tonne-miles out of the West Arctic Ocean have been sometimes directed in the direction of Europe, one thing that has modified within the months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Given the quick distance from Murmansk to Kola Bay (the place ship-to-ship transfers can happen), even when we see extra ice within the Arctic this winter, Russia’s present ice-class fleet will probably nonetheless be capable of accommodate these flows through STS. Thus, unbiased of the climate, this new route may additional help utilisation of Aframax and Suezmax tankers going ahead,” an replace from Vortexa acknowledged.
Russia’s swap of crude shipments from west to east has been a subject coated by Splash intimately all 12 months.
In accordance with S&P World Commodity Insights, Russia’s seaborne crude exports to Asia elevated by round 31% year-on-year to a mean 1.6m barrels per day within the first 10 months of 2022. Whereas China’s seaborne crude inflows from Russia surged by 36% year-on-year to a mean of 780,000 barrels per day within the January to October interval, India’s shopping for from Russia jumped to 450,000 barrels per day throughout the identical interval, in contrast with 90,000 barrels per day in the identical interval a 12 months earlier.
