MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian oil producers are postponing tenders due to a lack of buyers and as importers in Europe and Asia reject Russian ships amid widening disruption from a raft of sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
The West and many other nations moved quickly to impose sweeping sanctions against Russian companies, banks and individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week. Moscow calls its actions in the neighbouring country a “special operation”.
Oil producer Surgutneftegaz has added an additional 80,000 tonnes of Urals oil to its March loading schedule at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and offered the cargo in a tender, traders said, although previous attempts to sell cargoes via tender have failed.
“March sea exports are not going to be placed. Nobody wants to buy, ship or store Russian oil. It’s a big issue,” a trader of Russian oil said about attempts to sell sea-borne oil.
The Malaysian government said a Russian-flagged oil tanker targeted by U.S. sanctions will not be allowed to call at Kuala Linggi port, underlining global pressure to squeeze Moscow-linked businesses over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian energy supplies are not a direct target of the sanctions but there are growing concerns that the country’s oil and gas exports will be hit by the fallout from restrictions imposed on other sectors.
“They said, no direct sanctions on energy, but it’s still impossible to open up letter of credit for trading operations,” a trader said
Energy firms BP and Shell have abandoned multibillion-dollar positions in Russia, while leading banks, airlines, automakers and more have cut shipments, ended partnerships and called Moscow’s actions unacceptable.
Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft plans to raise oil supplies to 40.3 million tonnes via its network in March, up from the 35.7 million tonnes it supplied in February, the RIA news agency reported.
Transneft, which handles more than 80% of the total oil produced in Russia, also plans to increase supplies to China via the ESPO pipeline this month to 2.48 million tonnes from 2.22 million tonnes in February, according to TASS news agency.
Russia also plans to export 264,000 tonnes of ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk over March 1-6 versus 330,000 tonnes in the same period of February, traders said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)
