In China, there are no buyers for March deliveries of oil from Russia after new American sanctions on Russia's "shadow fleet" led to increased tanker transport costs, which were not covered by these sanctions,

Despite the latest round of sanctions by the US Treasury, Russia has managed to keep its four-week rolling average oil shipments fairly steady over the seven-day period to January 26

Millions of barrels of oil that would normally be preserve of oil refineries in Europe are instead heading to Asia as US sanctions on Russia revive one of the market’s great arbitrage trades.

In China, newly sanctioned tankers face delays offloading oil despite meeting waiver requirements. Three of them discharged Russian ESPO and Sokol crude during Jan. 15-17 while tanker Olia offloaded at Shandong's Yantai port on Sunday after carrying its ESPO cargo for nearly three weeks, according to LSEG data.

New U.S. sanctions on Russian oil exports have caused tanker rates to surge and trade to freeze as shippers scramble for non-sanctioned vessels.

On Jan. 10 the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 161 tankers and traders involved in about 2,000 shipments since the invasion began. It also acted against Moscow-based ship insurers and two companies — Surgutneftgas and Gazpromneft — which in the first 10 months of last year accounted for almost 30% of Russia’s oil exports.

Russia has continued to send cargoes of crude oil to India on tankers that have been sanctioned by the US, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. This situation presents a crucial test of Moscow’s ability to circumvent the stringent sanctions implemented by Washington earlier this month.

As reported by Reuters, these sanctions have already had tangible effects. The main recipients of Russian oil, China and India, have suspended purchases from Russia because the de

Oil fluctuated after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on China and the European Union, while traders continued to assess the fallout from unprecedented US sanctions on Russia.