Russia exports oil bypassing sanctions using Egypt

Russia exports oil bypassing sanctions using a small port in Egypt: tankers unload Urals oil in El Hamra terminal, hiding the origin of raw materials and its destination. Bloomberg writes about this, referring to the data of the tracking of ships.

According to the agency, the Crested tanker with a load of about 700 thousand barrels of oil was delivered to the Egyptian terminal at least once - July 24. After that, the CHRIS ship took part of the Russian oil from the port and it was mixed with Egyptian. On July 28, Chris, according to tracking data, left the terminal almost complete.

Now the tanker has been moored to another Egyptian oil terminal-Ras-Shuher in the Red Sea, where oil is also likely to be mixed with the local one. The agency clarifies that the supply of Russian oil is becoming more hidden, since European buyers began to avoid them after the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.

The El Hamra terminal, which is managed by the Egyptian company Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co., has six storage tanks that can accommodate 1.5 million barrels of raw oil and one buffer for loading and unloading. It was built for raw oil produced in Egypt, which allows Russia to dilute its local oil. The owner of the terminal did not respond to calls to comment on the situation.

Egypt is already used by Russia as a transit route for fuel oil, the publication emphasizes.

At the end of July, it became known that Egypt terminated contracts for the purchase of 240 thousand tons of Ukrainian grain. Reuters, citing sources, claimed that the four batch of grains did not manage to load due to the beginning of the fighting, the grain was supposed to be delivered in February and March. At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, visited Cairo.

Despite all the sanctions of the European Union in relation to Russia, including the embargo for the import of oil by sea, the Russian Federation was able to earn more on this, at least in currency, wrote The Insider. China increased the import of Russian oil by 55% compared to the previous year, which made Russia the largest supplier of oil in the PRC. The Russian Federation also redistributes flows and wants to use the export capabilities of its Caspian ports. At the same time, Russia is forced to compete in the Asian markets with its political allies-Iran and Venezuela, who, because of it, reduced their shares in China and India. The reduction in income, an important source of which is the Asian market, threatens the Russian authorities with serious problems, since since the beginning of the war in Ukraine the dependence of the budget on oil and gas revenues has jumped to 40%.