Page 10 - DMEA Week 09 2023

DMEA TERMINALS & SHIPPING DMEA

Russian crude oil unsold in Ghana

GHANA WESTERN sanctions have forced Russia to send and subsequent block on product purchases.
its oil to Ghana for storage after existing pools of Measures put in place have made Chinese
buyers shrink. On February 24, the St Kitts and and Indian buyers a top priority for Moscow as
Nevis-flagged Theseus arrived in Tema from a Russia faces a worsening a budget deficit after
port in the Black Sea carrying 600,000 barrels of recording a nearly 50% drop in January. Russia
Russian crude. has since sold large volumes of discounted oil to
This was due to be pumped into storage China, as of this month selling the most crude
tanks at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), marking and fuel oil to China since the conflict in Ukraine
the first time Russian oil has been delivered to began. Product sales have also increased across
a West African country since 2018, and poten- Latin America. Despite this, however, purchases
tially a major update for TOR, which has been from these countries alone are not enough for
dormant since it exhausted its feedstock supply Russia to compensate for lost markets. Russian
in mid-2018. Upon approaching Ghana the Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said
CEO of Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority mid-February that starting in March: “Russia’s
(NPA) said the tanker would be blocked if it oil production would be reduced by 500,000
was found to be heading into the country’s ter- barrels per day (bpd), or about 5%.”
ritorial waters. However, the NPA neglected to With Europe having been the largest market
respond to requests for comment after Theseus for Russia’s energy sector, the nation’s pool of
proceeded to dock in Ghana nonetheless. buyers has narrowed significantly, forcing deliv-
It is not known whether Theseus has ery costs up. This in turn has meant that Russia
offloaded its cargo, but as at time of going to press has had to discount the fuel at the point of export
it remained moored off Tema. to compensate. Russian President Vladimir
The move comes as traders scramble to Putin has criticised the sanctions and vowed to
find new buyers for the oil since the European “slash oil exports by 25%” to push prices up for
Union’s ban on Russian imports in December the West.™

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