The oil tanker Cordelia Moon, carrying crude oil from a Russian producer, has been drifting off India’s west coast for two days after coming under US sanctions.
The vessel was scheduled to unload at Vadinar Port on 9 February, after loading about 1 million barrels of Urals crude at Russia’s Novorossiysk port.
However, according to Bloomberg, the cargo belongs to one of the two Russian oil producers sanctioned by the US on 10 January. This is the first recorded instance of a tanker arriving with crude from the oil producer that was loaded after the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions.
Furthermore, at least four more tankers are expected in the coming weeks, while another carrying oil from a different Russian producer is already en route.
India’s Oil Minister Pankaj Jain stated that the country would not accept shipments from sanctioned companies if they were loaded after January 10 but added he had no information about the Cordelia Moon.
