The Aframax tanker Crude Centurion arrived at the West Coast of India on
Feb. 21, about 100 miles away from Sikka, its destination. Another, the
Afragold, had been floating nearby since Feb. 29 after briefly signaling
Mundra. Both loaded about 700,000 barrels of Urals from Russian Baltic sea port
Primorsk in January.
It remains unclear why they
have been idling but there are growing signs that western sanctions are
disrupting the fleet of tankers moving Russian oil.
Tankers transporting the nation’s barrels have been doing strange things
following a ramp up in US sanctions targeting traders and shipping companies
moving the nation’s petroleum. Over the past few months, several tankers idled
in the Indian Ocean for days before discharging in Indian ports or diverting to
Middle East.
Russia’s Sokol crude was hit hardest by tightened sanctions. At its
height, the stranded oil amounted to as much as 18 million barrels earlier this
year after Indian refiners shunned the grade. The backlog is finally clearing
up with most tanker heading to China after idling weeks in water.
Shipments of Urals have been relatively undisturbed.
Afragold is managed by a firm called
Universal Tanker Mgmt UTM-MAI, according to the Equasis international maritime
database. A Malta phone number listed for the company didn’t work. Crude
Centurion is managed by Athens-based Stealth Maritime Corp.
A person answering the phone said nobody was
available to comment because it’s a public holiday in Greece.