Russian tanker Krymsk, hit by sanctions, docked on Wednesday on the Chinese port of Dongying in japanese Shandong province, residence of unbiased refiners, to discharge 700,000 barrels of Russian Sokol crude, LSEG and Kpler delivery information confirmed.
This is the second Russian oil tanker, hit by sanctions, to dock at Chinese ports this month. Last week, tanker Liteyny Prospect discharged its 700,000-barrel Sokol crude cargo on the Chinese port of Huanghua close to Cangzhou metropolis in Hebei province.
The Dongying port authority declined remark when contacted by Reuters. The supervisor of the tanker, Sovcomflot (SCF), didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
China has change into the highest lifter of sunshine candy Sokol crude after shipments to India fell following fee and delivery points attributable to sanctions.
China’s Sokol crude imports surged this month and should hit an all-time excessive of 379,000 barrels per day, in accordance with estimates from Kpler. The information excluded oil from the 2 sanctioned Russian tankers.
Sokol oil is a low-sulphur, mild grade exported from De Kastri terminal of Russia’s Sakhalin Island by Sakhalin-1 LLC, managed by oil large Rosneft.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) late final month imposed sanctions on SCF and designated 14 crude vessels, together with Liteyny Prospect and Krymsk, as property by which SCF has an curiosity.
OFAC issued basic licences permitting the offloading of crude oil, or different cargoes, from the 14 vessels for 45 days, and permitting transactions with all different Sovcomflot tankers.
The sanctions are geared toward lowering revenues from oil gross sales that Russia can use to assist its struggle in Ukraine.
(Reuters – Reporting by Florence Tan and Beijing workforce; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
