Russia’s war chest badly hit as oil flows, prices plunge

Russia's war chest is being hammered by the doublewhammy of a slump in oil shipments and a continuing decline in prices, sending the value of crude exports to the lowest since January 2023.

- Bloomberg

The oil tanker named Boracay (also called Pushpa), a vessel suspected of belonging to the so-called "shadow fleet" involved in the Russian oil trade, off the coast of the western France port of Saint-Nazaire, France, on October 2.

(REUTERS)

Four-week average crude flows fell in the period to December 14, driven by the biggest week-on-week slump in flows since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Offloading cargoes is proving even more of a challenge, with crude at sea jumping 40% since the end of August and at least 20 cargoes loaded at the country's western ports in September and October still undelivered.

Numerous tankers have disappeared from tracking systems in the Riau archipelago, northeast of Singapore, a favoured location for transferring sanctioned Iranian barrels between vessels that's growing in popularity among carriers of Moscow's crude. Tracks suggest that at least six Russian cargo switches have taken place there since November, with another six fully-laden tankers disappearing in the area so far this month.