Russia rushed to load oil tankers to take advantage of the rise in crude oil and the pause in Trump’s sanctions

Moscow is benefiting from the double victory which involves rising global benchmark prices, which also raised Russian export prices, and the additional benefit of an extension and expansion of a US tariff exemption that allows all buyers to purchase loaded Russian crude oil by March 12.

New flexibilities could follow of sanctions if Middle Eastern crude oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz It won’t resume soon.

In fact, the Trump administration applied emergency surgery this Wednesday to the energy sector: it suspended maritime restrictions and lifted sanctions on Venezuela to for PDVSA to sell oil directly on the world market.

Another winner, who is not the United States, It’s Iranwhich It continued to sell oil despite the war. Through Hormuz, under its control, 90 Iranian oil tankers were able to pass.

The increase in purchases helped the prices of Russia’s main export mix delivered to India will reach an all-time highwhich meant an unexpected gain to the war chest of the Kremlin in Ukraine.

The combined increases in both prices and volumes drove the biggest jump in weekly income since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Price gains were boosted by a jump in flows last week, driven by the resumption of shipments from the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea following a Ukrainian drone strike on the night of March 1-2. Added to this flow an increase in shipments from Arctic ports and from Murmansk in the Pacific.

According to the most recent data, Russia’s seaborne exports averaged 3.44 million barrels per day in the four weeks up to March 15according to ship tracking data collected by Bloomberg. This supposes an increase of about 90,000 barrels per day compared to the period until March 8, but it is still about 400,000 barrels per day below the pre-Christmas peak.

The easing of sanctions on Indian refineries caused several oil tankers heading towards the Strait of Malacca to turn around and They will return to India, while others leaving the Red Sea sail to refineries along the country’s western coast, rather than crossing the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Malacca.

The accumulation of tankers full of Russian crude oil is beginning to slowly decline after remaining stable at about 140 million barrels since mid-December, up about 60 million barrels, or about 65%, since late August.

The exemption from US sanctions. is already helping to clear the fleet of idle tankers filled with Russian crude, and volume on tankers heading to India has been revised upward over the past eight weeks, as ships are diverted to the South Asian nation.

These will not appear in crude-at-sea figures until ships have unloaded their cargoes, but that will accelerate in the coming weeks, tanker tracking data indicates. crude oil shipments

A total of 37 tankers loaded 27.79 million barrels of Russian crude oil in the week to March 15, ship tracking data and port agent reports show. Volume rose from a revised 20.18 million barrels on 27 ships the previous week.

On an average daily basis, shipments in the week ending March 15 jumped to 3.97 million barrels per day, an increase of about 1.1 million barrels a day, the highest level in about three months.

The jump was driven by the return of exports of la terminal rusa de Novorossiysk in the Black Sea, after a drone attack in the first days of March, and due to the increase in shipments from both the Pacific and the Arctic.

Los Flows are volatile and are affected by weathermaintenance work, sanctions and shipping schedule.

There was a shipment of the Kazakhstan Kebco variety from Novorossiysk during the week.

On a four-week average, the gross value of Moscow’s exports jumped to 1.38 billion dollars weekly in the 28 days to March 15, compared to a revised $1.16 billion in the period to March 8. This put it at the highest level since October.

Urals prices jumped, boosted by the conflict in the Middle East, which further boosted global benchmarks, and by the extension of a US exemption that allows Indian refiners to temporarily buy Russian crudewhich sharply reduced the discounts Moscow had been forced to offer to move additional shipments to China.

Using this measure, Russian Urals export prices from the Baltic rose about $6 to $51.96 per barrel, and a similar increase took Black Sea cargoes to $50.32. The price of Pacific ESPO crude oil rose $7.70 to average $64.41 per barrel. Delivered prices in India also rose, rising $7.50 to $70.23 a barrel. All prices correspond to Argus Media figures.

On a weekly basis, the value of exports averaged about $2.07 billion in the 7 days to March 15, an increase of $890 million from the previous week’s revised figure. The jump in flows was driven by rising prices, with Urals rising about $12.50 a barrel compared to the week to March 5 and Pacific-loaded ESPO rising $21.60 a barrel.