Russia appears to have found a new way to get its oil to market amid looming Western sanctions on Moscow. The oil is blended in an Egyptian port, making it difficult to track the cargo's final destination.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
According to the agency, a cargo of about 700,000 barrels of Russian oil was delivered to Egypt's El Hamra oil terminal on the Mediterranean coast early in the morning of July 24. A few hours later, another ship picked up the shipment from the port, which may have included some or all of the Russian oil.
The unusual move makes it difficult to trace the final destination of the cargo. Russian oil shipments have become increasingly stealthy as European buyers have begun avoiding them since the country's invasion of Ukraine.
El Hamra, operated by Egypt's Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co., has six storage tanks capable of holding 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. The terminal was built to handle crude oil produced in Egypt's western desert, allowing Russian barrels to be blended with local volumes.
A few hours after the first tanker, Crested, left El Hamra, another, Chris, arrived. The ship had already been at the terminal for several days, but moved away from the berth to allow Crested to dock, tracking data showed.
When the Chris finally left El Hamra on July 28, it was nearly full. It is now docked at the Ras Shouheir oil terminal on Egypt's Red Sea coast. This terminal also provides an opportunity to mix Russian oil with Egyptian barrels.
Egypt is already used by Russia as a transit route for fuel oil. It is unclear whether El-Hamra is a one-time port or will become a more widely used port for Russian oil flows.
Tankers carrying Russian oil have previously transshipped from ship to ship off the Spanish city of Ceuta in North Africa and, more recently, in the central Atlantic Ocean. This is an unusual location for such a complex operation, which is usually conducted in sheltered coastal locations.
Another crude oil transshipment apparently took place in June off Johor, near Singapore. The area has already become a transshipment site for Iranian oil shipments bound for China.
The European Union's ban on oil shipments from Moscow, as well as on the provision of insurance and other transportation services, is due to take effect at the end of this year, which will increase pressure on Russia to test different ways to deliver its cargoes to buyers, the newspaper notes.
Recall that in the European Union, an embargo on imports of coal from Russia came into force on August 1. The ban on oil supplies will start on December 1.
