There are fewer and fewer buyers: Russian oil is headed for storage in West Africa
The cargo of Russian oil was sent for storage to an oil depot in Ghana, a country that itself is an oil exporter, which may indicate that Russia is looking for new buyers of its oil against the background of sanctions.
It is reported Bloomberg.
The tanker Tesei arrived in Ghana’s territorial waters on Friday, carrying about 600,000 barrels of Russian oil from a Black Sea port, according to tanker tracking data. According to the interlocutors of the agency, the cargo was supposed to be pumped into the tanks of the oil refinery in Tema.
As the tanker was on its way to the country, the Director General of Ghana’s National Petroleum Administration said the Russian cargo would be blocked if it was on its way to the country. However, the agency stopped responding to requests for comment after the tanker reached the country’s territorial waters.
The delivery to Tema will be the first time Russian oil has been delivered to the West African country since at least October 2018, tracking data show.
Ghana itself is a small oil exporter, shipping an average of about 140,000 barrels per day over the past six months. It is also close to Nigeria and Angola, the two largest oil suppliers in sub-Saharan Africa. This means that the delivered barrels are unlikely to be intended for Ghana itself, instead it indicates a possible search by Russia for new buyers.
Almost all EU companies are prohibited from buying Russian oil and oil products, or providing insurance services, to countries that buy it at a price higher than the established ceiling. After the introduction of sanctions against Russia, the aggressor country directed its oil exports to China and India.
However, since Europe used to be the largest market for Russian oil, this rapidly narrowed the circle of its buyers.
