Indian Oil Corp, an oil refiner in India, has been waiting for six tankers carrying Russian Sokol oil since early December, but deliveries have not yet arrived.
The operator of the Russian Sakhalin-1 project was unable to reach an agreement with a bank in the UAE and open an account for payments in dirhams. For this reason, Russia cannot deliver its oil to India, and Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country’s largest oil refinery, has already started using its reserves and increased its purchase of “black gold” in the Middle East. Reuters reports this.
Important
It was noted that from now on, Indian state-owned oil refineries carried out all their commercial operations with the Russian Federation in United Arab Emirates dirham. The government, which did not want trade to be carried out in Chinese yuan as Moscow suggested, insisted on this. At the same time, private oil refineries can also use Chinese currency.
According to the publication, the operator of Sakhalin-1 LLC recently failed to open a bank account in the UAE that would accept payments in dirhams. For this reason, IOC has not yet received six cargoes of Russian Sokol oil, the delivery of which was expected in early December. Notably, the oil was transported by the NS Century tanker, which came under US sanctions in November 2023.
While all Russian oil tankers now sail around India and Sri Lanka, the NS Century sails towards Singapore.
“The supplier plans to supply crude oil. I hope a solution will be found soon,” one of the sources told reporters.
India’s oil ministry told a parliamentary committee that state-owned oil companies are having difficulty paying for Russian oil because not all Indian banks can process payments in US dollars. But in 2022, India created a mechanism to pay in rupees for imports, including crude oil.
Important
Meanwhile, the European Union announced in December that it had implemented its 12th sanctions package against Russia. Restrictions will come into force from January 2024
Let us remind you that the EU has imposed an embargo on offshore oil imports from Russia as of December 5, 2022. In addition, G7 countries and Australia set a ceiling price of $60 per barrel for Russian oil.
It was also previously known that Russia sent tankers to China via the North Pole for the first time.
Source: Focus
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