Russia has cleared a backlog of crude cargoes stuck on tankers sanctioned by the US.
The seventh and last vessel carrying stored Sokol oil arrived in the Chinese port of Tianjin earlier on Wednesday, AIS data showed.
The vessel is Russian state-owned Sovcomflot’s 108,100-dwt aframax Sakhalin Island (built 2004).
Shipping data showed the ship began to head to Tianjin on Monday after being stationed off Shandong province for more than three weeks.
The six other sanctioned tankers discharged their cargoes in China earlier in March, pushing the country’s imports of Russian oil to a record high, Reuters reported.
Most of the deliveries have taken place during a sanctions waiver period granted by the US.
Indian refineries refused this week to accept Russian cargoes on Sovcomflot tankers.
More than 10m barrels of Sokol crude have been stored on vessels during the past three months as US sanctions caused payment difficulties.
Chinese importers receiving oil during March include Sinopec, PetroChina, Sinochem, CNOOC and independent refiners in Shandong, Kpler data showed.
China’s seaborne Russian crude imports look set to hit 1.82m barrels in March, according to the consultancy.
All but one of the six other ships were also operated by companies linked to Sovcomflot.
Price cap violations
Sanctions were imposed for violating the Western $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude.
Neither Sovcomflot nor Tianjin Port has commented.
TradeWinds reported that the Russian owner’s 105,700-dwt NS Century (built 2006) was hit with sanctions in November while delivering a cargo of Sokol crude to India and subsequently spent weeks off the coast of Sri Lanka.
It finally discharged its cargo this month at the Chinese port of Qingdao, four-and-a-half months after loading at the Yeosu lightering zone off South Korea, according to Kpler tracking data.
The NS Century was one of three ships that regularly transferred oil from Yeosu to Indian refineries before they were all blacklisted in November.
They received the crude in ship-to-ship transfers from other Sovcomflot tankers that brought it from the Rosneft-controlled Sakhalin-1 project in Russia’s Far East.
China is an outspoken critic of unilateral sanctions. The government spoke out against their use at the United Nations and refused to join the G7 price cap scheme.
