Highly months are the quantities of Russian and Iranian oil on ships as the stricter sanctions imposed by the US reduced the number of buyers, leaving fewer tankers available to deliver loads by increasing the cost of crude, as commercial sources said. Analysts.

Washington has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions since last October on ships and entities from Iran and Russia, interrupting trade with large importers China and India.

US President Donald Trump restored the “maximum pressure” campaign in Iran last week, where efforts are being made to reset oil exports to stop Tehran the efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

OPEC finds it difficult to attract new ships to fill the gap since sanctions were imposed in the fourth quarter, said Xu Muyu, a senior analyst at the Kpler data analysis company.

The ban on China’s Shandong Port Group last month in the tankers subject to sanctions on approaching its ports in the eastern province, where most of the independent refineries are located by the main buyers of Russian and Iranian oil, has also made it difficult of such loads.

Shipbroker Braemar ACM said that 57% of 126 of very large tankers (VLCCs) are currently involved in crude trade from Iran to China are already subject to sanctions by the US.

As exports have increased and traditions to China have declined, the amount of Iranian oil in floating warehouses has increased by 10 to 20 million barrels this year, according to three analysts estimates.

Evidence from Kpler showed that Iranian oil warehouses have more than 25 million barrels, with about 80% of the cargo floating in the waters of Singapore and Malaysia.

On the contrary, Emma Li, a senior analyst at Tanker Tracker Vortexa Analytics, estimates that the volume of Iranian crude in floating warehouses was 73.1 million barrels in late January.

Iran’s exports increased for a second month to 1.78 million barrels in January, having reached two years at 1.45 million in November, Li explained.

Russia

For Russian oil, the toughest penalties imposed a month ago by the outgoing Biden government have increased the costs for refineries in China and India, with Brent type ESPO trading $ 2 to $ 3 above Brend’s price Ice dashboard.

Transfer costs have also been raised, with fewer ships available. The cost of shipment of oil from Russia’s Far East to northern China was the last time of about $ 4.5 million, about three times the one that was before the last US sanctions, although it was reduced from $ 7 million shortly after their announcement .