Sanctioned tankers were transporting Russian oil in the sea near India

Off the coast of India, two sanctioned vessels were transshipping Russian oil using the ship-to-ship (STS) method.

This was reported by Liga, citing Bloomberg.

The tanker Fortis received about 720,000 barrels of Russian Urals oil from Rosneft from the Ailana. The transshipment took place on November 4 near the coast of India.

The vessels did not try to hide their origin. After that, the tanker that received the oil continued its journey to the Indian port of Kochi.

Rachel Zimba, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, explains that uncertainty about sanctions risks can currently be observed in the market. The end result of this is the search for circumvention of restrictions, increased ship-to-ship transshipments, longer routes, more complex transactions, etc.

The Ailana vessel was loaded in the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, Russia, even before the imposition of US sanctions against Rosneft. The tanker was stranded off Mumbai for almost two weeks without a clear reason, after which it reloaded oil onto the Fortis and headed back to Russia.

USM previously reported that sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil could deprive the Kremlin of up to $5.5 billion per month.