The amount of Russian and Iranian oil that remains in the ships has reached the maximum of several months as the toughest sanctions of the United States reduced the number of buyers, leaving less oils available to deliver loads and increase the costs of raw, commercial sources and analysts said.
Washington has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on ships and entities that deal with the oil of Iran and Russia since October, interrupting trade with important importers China and India.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, restored last week his “maximum pressure” campaign in Iran that includes efforts to reduce their oil exports to zero to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The OPEC producer has fought to attract new ships to fill the shipping capacity gap since the sanctions were imposed on the fourth quarter, said Xu VERYU, a senior analyst of the KPLER data analysis firm.
A prohibition last month by the Port Shandong group of China on sanctioned oil tankers of which they call its ports in the Eastern province, home of most independent refineries that are the main buyers of Russian and Iranian oil, it has also hindered That such charges are downloaded. .
Shipbroker Braemar ACM said that 57 percent of the 126 very large raw carriers (VLCC) currently involved in Iran’s crude oil trade are already subject to US sanctions.
As exports have increased and deliveries to China have decreased, the amount of Iranian oil in floating storage has expanded between 10 million and 20 million barrels so far this year, according to estimates of three analysts.
However, calculations of the total Iranian oil volume in floating storage vary widely since analysts use different methodologies to track the so -called shadow fleet.
Kpler data showed floating Iranian oil storage in more than 25 million barrels, the highest in more than a year, with approximately 80 percent of loads floating in the waters of Singapore and Malaysia.
In contrast, Emma Li, a senior analyst at Tanker Tracker Vortexa Analytics, estimates that the volume of Iranian crude and condensate in floating storage stood at 73.1 million barrels at the end of January.
Iran exports increased by a second month to 1.78 million barrels in January after reaching a minimum of two years of 1.45 million in November, he said.
“Smuggling techniques, such as deactivation and supplantation of AIS transponders and undertake ship -to -ship transfers, the RE can even more the Iranian oil that begins to float,” said Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics of the energy aspects of The consultant.
With fewer ships not sanctioned to deliver oil to China, crude oil prices have risen.
Discounts for Iranian Iranian Light Crude ) To the province of Shandong for a burden when arriving in March, merchants said.
