The US Department of Justice warned oil buyers about deceiving suppliers who circumvent restrictions against Russia

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of Justice published a warning that counterparties are evading the price ceiling for Russian oil. The department believes that tanker owners use numerous methods to conceal both the origin of the product and the route of the vessel.

Ways around the Russian Oil Price Ceiling notes that US fuel buyers may not be aware that they are dealing with Russian oil. “Non-US individuals” involved in the bypass scheme provide incomplete or false documents and actively engage in other “fraudulent practices,” the memo warns.

It follows from the document that OFAC is particularly concerned about the manipulation of the automatic information system (AIS) used in shipping to identify ships. The US department believes that the system is not always able to accurately display information regarding the route of a particular tanker. As a result, shipowners can load ships in Russian ports and successfully hide this fact, the report says.

For such maneuvers, suggest in OFAC, suppliers of Russian oil use the Pacific harbors of the Russian Federation. The main grade in this case is ESPO, supplied via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. The US Department urges US industry to be vigilant.

The price ceiling for Russian oil, introduced by the EU, the G7, as well as Australia and Norway, came into force on December 5. The cap price was set at $60 per barrel. In early April, the price of the Russian Urals overcame restrictions: per month grew almost one and a half times both due to the rise in dollar prices and the depreciation of the Russian currency.

Back in February, analysts at the Institute of International Finance predicted gradual reduction of the price cap-related discount for Russian varieties. Experts noted that the effectiveness of the price ceiling would depend on the size of the Russian oil tanker fleet.

Last week, the ruble price of Russian oil Urals for the first time in eight months rose above the level of 5 thousand rubles. per barrel.

More details – in the material “Kommersant” “The budget is filled with oil”.

Grigory Leiba