Asian refiners are broadly unfazed by the escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow as the companies do not expect any severe disruption to Russian crude trades in the region, while Russian oil makes up only a small portion of many Asian countries’ refinery feedstock import baskets with many alternatives seen available. Far East Russian crude grades including ESPO Blend, Sokol and Sakhalin blend are actively traded in the Asian spot market and the cargoes are changing hands without any disruptions so far, according to feedstock managers and crude traders at major Thai, South Korean, Chinese and Japanese refiners. The Russian light and medium sweet crude cargo trades are expected to continue as per normal as it would be extremely difficult for Washington to impose full-scale sanctions on Moscow and completely block off Russian energy exports, […]