• Far Eastern port of Kozmino

port of Kozmino, on Russiaís eastern edge. The crude arrives via the 4,857km Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline from which it derives its name, ESPO-blend. It is then loaded on to tankers and shipped, mainly to refineries in China.

Public Eye hatte Zugang zu detaillierten Daten, die zeigen, wie sich die Situation am Hafen von Kozmino zwi- schen März und Oktober 2022 entwickelt hat. Von diesem Ölterminal in der Nähe von Wladiwostok im Fernen Osten Russlands wird Espo Blend crude, das Rohölgemisch, das über die Pipeline vom östlichen Sibirien bis zum Pazifi- schen Ozean transportiert wird, nach Asien exportiert – eine Menge von jährlich 35 Millionen Tonnen.

In the Far East,the port of Kozmino has been built to export Russian Siberian crude oil, pumped more than 1,930km, for delivery by sea to consumers in the Pacific and South-east Asia.¹⁾

While there isn’t quite a dedicated fleet of vessels serving Kozmino, there are many tankers that have made multiple trips between the terminal and Chinese ports in the past three and a half months.^{1) 2)}

Tankers serving Kozmino require no special equipment.^{3) 4)}

The outgoing Biden administration imposed aggressive sanctions on Russia’s oil industry earlier this month, which targeted insurers, traders and around 70% of the ships that served Kozmino. That put ESPO exports of 900,000 barrels a day at risk, and provided an opportunity for other ship operators.

Freight rates for ESPO Blend oil to India soared to $9-10 million, higher than $3 million at the end of 2024.

This increase is attributed to a scarcity of vessels following new US sanctions that have reduced tanker availability in the market.^{5) 6)}

Traders reported that the cost of shipping oil from Kozmino port to China on Aframax tankers, which have a capacity of around 100,000 tons, has surged to between $6.5 million and $7.5 million, according to the report.^{7) 8)}

This is a significant increase from the average cost of $1.5 million at the end of last year.^{9) 10)}

Data from Simpson Space Young, accessed through LSEG Workspace, showed that freight rates for oil shipments from Kozmino to northern Chinese ports were at $6.5 million.^{11) 12)}

Shipments to southern Chinese ports were at $7.5 million.^{13) 14)}

Traders reported that freight rates for ESPO Blend oil shipments to India experienced a significant surge, reaching approximately $9-10 million for a one-way trip, according to Reuters.¹⁵⁾