Trading houses Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura are caught in the crossfire between Russian oil producers and Western buyers, which have refused to take contaminated Russian crude bought by the traders. At least 10 crude tankers with 1 million tonnes of oil, worth more than $500 million in normal circumstances, are marooned across Europe and still looking for buyers because they have been tainted with organic chloride. The three trading firms bought the biggest number of cargoes loading from the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga in late April to early May, while around two or three cargoes were also taken by trading units of Total and BP, four traders familiar with the market data said. Russian sellers included Rosneft, Russneft, Surgut and Kazakh firms, […]