Russia Flagship Oil Freight Soars After Biden Farewell Sanctions

By Alex Longley

Mar 4, 2025 (Bloomberg) –The premium shipowners are charging to haul Russia’s flagship oil is soaring as farewell sanctions imposed by the outgoing Biden administration continue to bite Moscow’s petroleum trade.

The price of carrying about 1 million barrels of Urals crude from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to the west coast of India is the most expensive since April, according to Argus Media. 

Such a cargo now costs $7.9 million to transport, up from about $5.6 million at the end of last year. That’s well over double the rate for a tanker not hauling Russian barrels on the same route, the price-reporting agency estimates. 

The US imposed unprecedented sanctions on ships helping to service Moscow’s oil trade in January, designating about 160 vessels and targeting major Russian companies, insurers and middlemen. 

Since that time Russian shipping costs have been getting steadily more expensive, effectively limiting the revenues it can earn. There are some indications that deliveries have become more complicated since the move. The last few weeks have also seen a series of mystery explosions aboard oil tankers whose last calls were at Russian ports. 

Still, there’s significant uncertainty about the path forward for sanctions on Russian oil. President Trump’s public fall out with his Ukrainian counterpart last week pushed investors across the globe to reprice the prospect of peace talks. 

Weakening global oil markets and sanctions are also chipping away at the price of Urals.

The grade fell to $57.97 a barrel at the Baltic port of Primorsk last week and to $58.32 at Novorossiysk. Both were the weakest since September and are below a price cap of $60 a barrel put in place by the Group of Seven nations and its allies back in December 2022. 

Officals at two shipowners that sometimes send tankers to Russia said that they didn’t believe a spate of mystery explosions on vessels that had visited the country were a driver of the higher freight costs.

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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