Small tankers and ship-to-ship transfers are being used to keep the flow of Russian oil to China steady, Bloomberg reported this week, citing sources from the brokering industry. Typically, the report notes, Russian ESPO crude is shipped directly to China. But lately, buyers are opting for loading the crude on small tankers and shipping it to South Korean waters, from where it is loaded onto supertankers and then taken to China. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the change is a result of reprioritization among buyers as shipowners avoid loading Russian oil because of Western sanctions. Currently, almost all of the ESPO available for sale is going to China. The ship-to-ship transfer tactic was and probably is still being used by Iran to ship its oil abroad—to China again—to avoid stifling U.S. sanctions on its oil industry. The sanctions against Russia do not target oil and gas directly, but they do […]