Page 17 - EurOil Week 08 2023

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on Neptun Deep perimeter and impounded the ship. Police intelligence piped to Poland and Germany, according to
Bloomberg, have left the country largely on
suspected the ship was illegally transporting
OMV Petrom has reportedly failed to Russian oil after the certificate of origin for European tankers.
submit to the National Agency for Mineral the cargo was found to be missing. The pressure is on the Kremlin to
Resources (NAMR) the development Investigators say the oil on Grace Felix smuggle oil to Continental ports, as while
plan for the Domino and Pelican Sud was ordered by AV International Group, Russia has been using its “ghost fleet” of up
commercial deposits, part of Neptun Deep an Albanian LNG trader owned by local to 600 tankers to transport oil outside the
perimeter, for which the deadline was businessman Piro Baren, the Albanian Top sanctions regime, as it takes two months for
December, according to B1Tv. Channel TV reported. these ships to sail to Asia and back, Russia is
The TV station speculates about the oil Russia saw a significant spike in its looking for customers closer to home where
company potentially losing the concession seaborne crude exports last week, as it gets ships can make multiple trips a month.
rights, but this is a rather extreme scenario. ready to cut production by 500,000 barrels The volume of crude on vessels heading
Other penalties may be applied, though. per day (bpd) in reaction to the recent two to China and India, plus small flows to
The NAMR reportedly repeatedly asked rounds of embargoes imposed by the EU in Turkey and the quantities on ships that have
the company, which acts as the operator December and February. yet to show a final destination, rebounded
of the perimeter, to submit the complete The country exported 3.6mn bpd of in the four-week period, equalling the
documents. crude oil from its ports in the seven days highest amount observed since Bloomberg
More precisely, the commerciality study up to February 17, marking a 26% increase began tracking the shipments at the start of
regarding the deposits, submitted at the end week on week and flows were at multi-week 2022.
of last year, fails to include the evaluation highs from all its Baltic, Black Sea, Arctic Shipments to China have remained
study of the geological resources and and Pacific terminals, with a less-volatile fairly constant, but Bloomberg reports that
reserves for Domino and Pelican Sud, nor four-week average of exports also rising, cargoes identified as “Unknown Asia” or
does it include the proposed calendar for Bloomberg reports. “Other Unknown” will end up in India,
exploitation. The Grace Felix had departed from which has massively expanded its import of
According to information circulated Azerbaijan and was allegedly loaded with Russian crude.
around the end of last year, the operator Russian oil in Greek waters, near the port of The Grace Felix case is indicative of the
of the perimeter, OMV Petrom, had six Kalamata, from another ship, the TV station growth in ship-to-ship transfers, one of the
weeks to comply with the requirements – a said. While Russia used to send the majority easiest ways to dodge sanctions and disguise
deadline that has already expired. of its oil via the Baltic port of Primorsk to the origin of Russian oil, which have been
The commerciality study is an destinations in Europe, since the war started most visible off the Spanish North African
indispensable stage for starting investments, a year ago Black Sea ports have seen a 25% city of Ceuta and off the Greek coast near
and failure to provide all the documents can increase in volumes as Russia’s customer Kalamata, according to Bloomberg based on
result in the withdrawal of the operating profiles change and the importance of a study of ship destination and cargo data.
license, according to Adevarul daily. Africa and Asia grows. At least 30 cargoes have been transferred
While this is a rather unlikely scenario, As bne IntelliNews reported at the start between ships in those two locations since
if backed by clear regulations, it could help of the conflict in Ukraine, oil sanctions the start of the year. Twelve more Aframax
the state require OMV Petrom to allow have been expected to be very leaky from tankers that loaded in the Baltic since late
state-owned Romgaz – Petrom’s partner in the start and ship-to-ship transfers are January look likely to transfer their cargoes
the project – to act as the operator of the a common way of disguising the origin to other vessels in the Mediterranean, based
perimeter. of sanctioned oil cargo. Greek tankers on their destination signals, the newswire
OMV Petrom confirmed recently, on have been especially co-operating in reports.
the occasion of a quarterly update of its the transport of Russian oil, despite the
operational results, that a final decision on sanctions, according to a report by Institute
going ahead with Neptun Deep should be of International Finance (IIF) that found Bosnia’s presidency fails to
expected by the middle of the year, implying they had increased their share from 35% of
that it expects no consequences for the the total shipped Russian oil to 55% now, agree on state-level natural gas
failure to file the complete commerciality as bne IntelliNews reported in a piece on
study. leakage via pipelines and tankers. regulator
At present, the Grace Felix is seized and
lying at anchor 10 km from the coast of A proposal by the representative of the
Albania seizes tanker suspected Durres. The investigators of the Prosecutor’s Bosniak member of the presidency of
Bosnia & Herzegovina, Denis Becirovic,
Office are continuing to work in order to
of sanctions-busting Russian oil document this illegal activity and identify for the formation of a state-level (versus
entity-level) energy regulator to deal with
the individuals involved. The ship’s cargo
delivery, as Russian shipborne will be subject to further examination to natural gas issues received a firm refusal
from the Serb representative in the Bosnian
determine its origin and whether it is in
exports soar violation of any sanctions or embargoes. presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic.
The President of Republika Srpska,
The jump in oil exports suggests that the
The Grace Felix oil tanker, flying the oil export business is continuing as normal, Milorad Dodik, said that “no regulator
Liberian flag, was seized by authorities although some analysts have argued that for gas will be formed at the Bosnia and
on February 20, suspected of breaking the cut in oil production, due to go into Herzegovina (BiH) level and that there is no
sanctions by smuggling oil out of the effect next week, was forced on the Kremlin, transfer of responsibilities because entities
country, as Russia’s shipborne oil exports unable to find enough customers to buy all are responsible for energy issues”.
soared. its output. Dodik has long called for the secession
The ship was due to unload its fuel at The high volumes of crude being shipped of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia’s two
Porto Romano, the industrial port located out of Russia’s western ports, which now entities alongside the Bosnian Federation,
in Durres in Albania when officers swooped appears to include volumes previously and contested the authority of state-level

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