(Bloomberg) -- A tanker sanctioned by the US this month has discharged Russian oil in China after an unusually long journey in which it changed its destination from Shandong province, a hub for independent refiners.
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The Huihai Pacific, an Aframax that’s a regular on the route from Kozmino on Russia’s Pacific coast to China, unloaded nearly 770,000 barrels of ESPO crude in Tianjin, near Beijing, on Friday morning, according to ship-tracking data from Bloomberg and Kpler.
The US imposed broad sanctions on Russian oil exports on Jan. 10, blacklisting at least 70% of the fleet that serve Kozmino. While those vessels, including the Huihai Pacific, have until the end of February to discharge cargoes loaded before the restrictions were announced, several of them have been idling off China after Shandong Port Group Co., which manages multiple terminals in the province, issued a directive forbidding sanctioned ships.
The Huihai Pacific’s original destination was Dongjiakou, a port in Shandong, and it ended up spending almost four weeks at sea, much more than the regular journey from Kozmino to China that usually takes less than a week. The ship’s travails show how supply chains are being reconfigured in the wake of the US sanctions.
China’s independent, or teapot, refiners, most of which are in Shandong, have been the most enthusiastic buyers of ESPO and Sokol crude from Russia’s Far East due to discounts and short travel times. They may now be faced with considerably higher transport costs to keep taking the oil.
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