Satellite and social media imagery, along with customs data, shows that the tankers loaded cargo from a terminal used solely for crude oil from the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean pipeline known as ESPO.

which is loaded onto tankers at Kozmino in Asia

Public Eye had access to detailed information that shows how the situation at the port of Kozmino evolved from March to October 2022. This oil terminal, located near Vladivostok in the far east of Russia, is where ‘ESPO Blend crude’ is exported to Asia. ESPO is the blend of crude oil that is transported via the pipeline that runs from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean, estimated at 35 million tons per year.

Part of the reason is likely money. Freight rates to transport ESPO crude from the Russian port of Kozmino to China more than tripled after the US imposed sanctions on tankers that utilized the route. Most ships typically used for the trade are Aframaxes, which have capacity of around 750,000 barrels.

crude from Russia’s Far East which is preferred by teapots

About 900,000 barrels a day of the crude ESPO — named for the initials of a pipeline that takes the oil from east Siberia to the Pacific — could also be hit hard. It is the nation’s largest single-port export stream.^{1) 2)}

Almost all those ESPO exports go to China from the Pacific port of Kozmino, and almost three-quarters of the shipments made since the start of October were on tankers that are now sanctioned by the US.^{3) 4)}

This was the highest price since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, which had previously caused discounts as deep as $6. These price changes occurred before the January sanctions.^{5) 6)}