MOSCOW, 16 Mar. The U.S. has become more likely to lease large tankers to export oil to Europe, as medium-sized vessels are loaded due to transporting Russian fuel to Asia, Bloomberg reported.
A total of 11 VLCCs and 16 Suezmax class vessels are due to arrive in Europe from the US this month. They now account for about 60 percent of the crude oil transported along this route, up from 37 percent last year. Large tankers can carry about two million barrels of oil, while Suezmax can carry about a million.
Usually, small Aframax vessels with a capacity of 700,000 barrels are used for energy exports, but now they are almost completely reserved for the sale of Russian oil to China and India. These states are increasing their purchases of raw materials from Moscow, as Western countries abandoned them after the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions, the article says.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that after the measures on the import of Russian crude oil and products of its processing, the country's economy not only did not collapse, but is healthy and prosperous. According to the experts of the international analytical company Kpler, which covers more than 20 world markets of various profiles with its close attention, Russian oil companies calmly survived a unilateral divorce from Europe and quickly switched to new markets.