Australia secretly imported Russian oil despite sanctions, — The Guardian

Millions of tons of Russian oil were delivered through a port partly owned by Macquarie Bank and sold to Australian companies.

This is reported by  The Guardian with reference to the European Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (Crea), which conducted the investigation.

Despite the fact that the country stopped direct purchases of fuel from Russia after the start of its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Australia has imported more than 3 million tons of petroleum products since 2023.

According to Crea, importers have found a way to import Russian oil into Australia through a port partly owned by Macquarie Bank. Millions of tons of Russian oil could potentially be resold to Australian companies.

Thus, Australia’s sanctions allow purchases through third countries, which, according to Crea’s European analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan, indirectly supports Russian oil production and the Kremlin’s tax revenues.

Australia receives most of its oil products through Singapore and India, where Russian crude is processed. Companies such as Trafigura, Vitol and Viva Energy claim to comply with all laws and sanctions, but cannot guarantee the complete absence of Russian oil in their supplies.

Experts Crea spoke to did not disclose how much financial benefit Macquarie received from its such operations. The Guardian also emphasizes that the experts did not give guarantees that the terminal did not sell Russian oil to Australia.

At the same time, in September it became known that Australia had tightened sanctions against Russian oil and the “shadow fleet”.