Quantity – a record amount of Urals crude oil transported by sea Russia, in an attempt to offset the increased cost of transport after European sanctions. A total of more than 14 million barrels of crude oil will be sent to sea this month, according to tanker tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. At the beginning of last month in European Union banned almost all imports of crude oil from Russia, joining the G7 plan to limit the price at which Moscow can sell each barrel at $60. As a result, freight costs skyrocketed as ships became harder to find.

Ship-to-ship transportation is commonplace in the oil trade, with the center of this activity being in the Spanish city of Ceuta on the north coast of Africa, as well as in Kalamata. At the same time, ice-breaking tankers cannot go far from the Baltic, as they are needed during the Russian winter, and the farther they sail, the longer it takes them to return. However, most of Russia’s Urals oil is transported thousands of miles in Asia in relatively small tankers because of the boycott in Europe. These ships, however, are not very suitable for long-distance trade.

It is estimated that more than 14 million barrels will be transported by sea this month.

At the moment, a total of five supertankers are involved in transshipment of Russian oil from ship to ship.

Three of them completed their work in Ceuta and sailed for Asia. Two more are waiting in a Spanish port, and at least six much smaller ones, about a third of the capacity, should arrive there by the end of the month, loaded with Urals oil from Baltic ports.