Russia cannot sell significant volumes of oil

Due to problems with the organization of payment, Russia will not be able to sell significant volumes of oil produced as part of the Sakhalin-1 project for several weeks, the Reuters news agency reports.

According to Reuters, 14 tankers carrying 10 million barrels of Russian oil have spent several weeks off the coast of South Korea, waiting for the exporter “Rosneft” and the Indian importer Indian Oil Co to resolve the dispute over the payment of oil.

Last year, due to the danger of becoming an object of American sanctions, the Indian company refused to use dollars in calculations for oil, and offered to carry out operations in rupees. Russian companies refuse to accept rupees as payment for oil, because it is a non-convertible currency, and imports from India to Russia are minimal. As a temporary measure, India paid for Russian oil in yuan, Hong Kong dollars and United Arab Emirates dirhams. However, the Emirates introduce additional control over the use of their currency in such operations, and India does not want to use the yuan, the currency of a competing state.

As Reuters reports, the volume of oil on the tankers is equivalent to one and a half months of production within the framework of the Sakhalin-1 project. According to sources in the Indian company, they do not expect to resume supplies in the near future. Representatives of Rosneft and Indian Oil Co did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

In March 2022, the American concern ExxonMobil, which headed the international consortium engaged in oil and gas field development and production as part of the Sakhalin-1 project, announced its withdrawal from its membership in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.