Greek shipping players have jumped at the chance to lift price cap-compliant Russian oil, data from Vortexa shows.
The volume of Russian crude being carried on Greek-operated aframax tankers has jumped to a 12-month high, with Russia appearing to offer discounted oil to buyers in India and Turkey, said Mary Melton, senior freight analyst at the trade analytics company.
“When looking at the profile of some of the Greek-operated vessels which lifted Russian crude since 10 January, the wide range of operators is surprising,” Melton said.
“The average vessel age is 12, with 26% of these vessels five years or younger. This demonstrates there is no barrier to entry in terms of age.”
She noted that 60% of these vessels have not transported Russian crude for at least six months, while 15% have had no Russian voyages since 2023.
Two of the vessels lifted Russian crude for the first time, previously working trades in Europe and the US Gulf.
“This behaviour points to Russia’s need to offer a discount to ensure exports continue and could also point to high effort at [US sanctions] compliance on the part of the likely buyers of these cargoes in India,” Melton said.
Both India and Turkey have, alongside China, emerged as buyers of Russian crude following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent shunning of its energy exports by Western buyers.
Following US sanctions on Russian shipping in January, Indian officials said any Russian crude loaded after 10 January would not be allowed to discharge in the country, and Turkey’s largest refiner, Tupras, said it would shun Russian oil.
Under the current sanctions regime from G7 countries, Russian crude purchases are allowed so long as it is below $65 per barrel.
If buyers agree to a price above that threshold, they would have to use non-traditional maritime services and shadow fleet ships or risk ending up on the blacklist of several of the world’s largest economies.
Still, Kpler data shows some Russian oil en route to Russia, while Turkey continues to import plenty of it.
According to data from Trading Economics, Russian Urals crude has dropped in price over the last eight days from $69.75 per barrel to $65.49 per barrel.
Aframax boost?
Melton said the Greek-operated vessels had primarily come from Atlantic basin trades, especially those in the Mediterranean.
With fewer ships in the region, aframax owners could benefit from more favourable tonnage lists.
On Friday, the Baltic Exchange’s aframax time-charter equivalent assessment shot up nearly $1,600 per day to $29,141 per day.
But many European trades saw rates tick down.
The Baltic Sea to UK/Continental Europe route fell $121 on a TCE basis to $77,269 per day.
The cross-Mediterranean route dipped $109 per day to $29,768 per day.(Copyright)
