A shipment of Russian oil is on its way to storage tanks in Ghana, a country that sells its own petroleum and is close to two major regional suppliers.
The development suggests that traders could be scouring the market for new buyers of Russian barrels after the European Union stopped almost all seaborne imports from the country in December. The bloc’s measures made Moscow hugely reliant on Chinese and Indian purchases.
According to tanker monitoring information from Bloomberg, the ship Theseus arrived in Ghana’s territorial waters on Friday carrying around 600,000 barrels of Russian oil from a port in the Black Sea.
Its cargo was due to be pumped into storage tanks in Tema, people with knowledge of the matter said. The last signal from the vessel was on Sunday evening, by which time unloading had not begun.
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Group of Seven and the European Union slapped harsh sanctions on the nation’s energy sector hence Russia is under pressure to maintain its oil earnings.
Almost all businesses operating within the European Union are forbidden from acquiring Russian crude and petroleum products, or from offering essential services like insurance to countries that import these goods beyond a set price.
According to the International Energy Agency, Russia’s petroleum income in December decreased by about 20% from the prior month as a result of significant discounts on the country’s oil.
The crude will be stored in tanks at the Tema Oil Refinery, the people said. The firm didn’t respond to requests for comment.
When the tanker was en route to the country, the CEO of Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority said the shipment would be blocked if it was bound for the country. The NPA didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment after it reached the west African nation’s territorial waters.
According to tracking information, the delivery of Russian oil to Tema would mark the first such delivery to a West African nation since at least October 2018.
According to tanker tracking data published by Bloomberg, Ghana itself is a tiny oil exporter, moving an average of approximately 140,000 barrels per day during the previous six months. Also, the two largest suppliers in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria and Angola, are nearby.
Russian crude deliveries to China and India after sanctions were imposed on the country disrupted global oil flows and the marine industry.
Source: Myjoyonline
