According to official documents obtained by JOY NEWS, Kazakhstan served as the port of loading for the ship allegedly responsible for transporting 600,000 barrels of Russian crude oil to Ghana.
Bloomberg first broke the story and tracked the vessel, MT Theseus “from a port in the Black Sea”.
Aktau, Kazakhstan, was the precise port of loading, JOY NEWS confirmed.
Aktau, is a small city located on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea with a port which had been expanded to receive and export larger and more diverse types of cargo notably, crude oil.
Kazakhstan has the largest proven oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region, according to the United States International Trade Administration. Its oil output peaked at 1.8 million barrels per day in 2021, and the oil and gas industry contributes nearly 44% of the state budget’s revenue.
The certificate of quantity seen by JoyNews show that the shipper of the crude oil is the Hong Kong based Bellatrix Energy Limited and carried exactly 79,804.455 Metric Tons of oil.
The documents confirm JoyNews earlier report that a Tema-based private refinery, Platon Gas Oil Ghana Limited procured the crude oil.
The vessel departed the coast of Kazakhstan on 25th January, 2023 with Rakesh Ganesh Kumar as its Captain.
As JoyNews reported early on, the crude oil was to be stored in tanks at the state owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). Sources at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) insist the crude oil has not been discharged yet for storage. The vessel was still docked at the Tema harbour as investigations continue.
TOR dispatched its quality control officer to board the vessel on Friday 24th February 2023, the same day the vessel docked at Tema.
JoyNews has seen the TOR quality control analysis report which confirms that samples were taken on Friday 24th February and analyzed on Saturday 25th February, 2023. The report, signed by the Quality Control Manager at TOR describes the product as “Light Crude Oil”.
The ship is still being detained by the NPA at the Tema harbor in the interim.
Source: Myjoyonline
