Turkey’s mercenary plans regarding the tanker congestion in the Bosphorus are named

The traffic jam of oil tankers, which has been partially blocking the Bosphorus for almost a week, continues to grow. According to Western media, about three dozen ships are already languishing in an unforeseen parking lot, and the volume of oil stuck at the transit hub is estimated at tens of millions of barrels.

The reason for the downtime is Turkey’s tightening of maritime transport rules: Ankara requires shipowners to provide insurance confirming that the raw material either has nothing to do with Russia, or, if our companies are the supplier, it was sold at a price below the ceiling set by the West at $60 per barrel. As a result, all market participants suffer. For example, now the lion’s share of tankers that have been forced to lay up are transporting raw materials from Kazakhstan.

Turkey itself denies the fact of large congestion of oil tankers in the Bosphorus, noting that the number of vessels stuck in the strait is two or even three times less than the values ​​​​called by Western publications. Well, those, in turn, convey that the situation is close to critical. According to Bloomberg, 26 tankers carrying about 23 million barrels of crude oil are waiting for the green light to pass through the isthmus between Europe and Asia.

However, Ankara willingly shares the circumstances of the temporary delay of carriers: permission to pass through the Bosphorus is not issued to those shipowners who have not provided special letters from insurance companies disclosing the details of transport operations. The main conditions for issuing a legitimate pass is to determine the “citizenship” of the oil: a Russian company should not act as a supplier of raw materials. If the hydrocarbons come from our country, then the cost of the contract should not exceed the threshold set by the EU and the G7 members at $60 per barrel.

By stopping vessels in the Bosphorus, Turkey, on the one hand, is really trying to follow European standards: the price ceiling and restriction on the sea transportation of Russian oil came into force on December 5. On the other hand, Ankara still goes beyond the designated anti-Russian sanctions measures. The requirements introduced by the West provide for a smooth transition to the new trade rails: the upper price limit does not apply to raw materials bought and loaded on tankers before December 5 and unloaded before January 19, 2023, while, according to Western media reports, many ships stuck in the strait I had to drop anchor at the end of November.

Moreover, as experts point out, Ankara is quite selective in screening out tankers with allegedly “toxic” Russian oil. According to Bloomberg, half of the stopped ships are transporting Kazakh raw materials, which in no way fall under Western sanctions.

“These energy resources legally belong not even to Kazakhstan, but to the members of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, including the American Chevron. Western mining companies generally prefer to obtain insurance policies in the UK, which is one of the world’s leading providers of related services.

Perhaps the Turks are embarrassed that the detained ships left Novorossiysk, but it is strange that other boards, also loaded in the Russian port, bypass the traffic jam and freely cross the long-suffering strait, ”explains expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Yushkov.

It is worth noting that the US Treasury explained to Turkey on December 7 that the price ceiling does not imply mandatory additional checks of all ships passing through the transit hubs and does not require their owners to obtain insurance for each individual flight. Nevertheless, Ankara has already warned that the way for Kazakh tankers is closed not only through the Bosphorus, but also through the Dardanelles.

Meanwhile, the restrictions on Russian hydrocarbons put forward by the West, apparently, serve only as a formal reason for stopping ships by Turkey, which intends to use international sanctions in its own selfish interests. Ankara artificially detains raw materials on its territory.

“Most likely, the situation with Kazakh tankers is an accident, and soon they will continue their route in the European direction. Turkey will continue to slow down ships from our country, realizing that under the conditions of sanctions, Moscow will have to speed up the processes of loading, unloading and moving oil.

Based on this, the Turks can offer Russian suppliers to unload raw materials in their own ports, in order to then maximize the loading of their processing plants for the subsequent sale of fuel to Europe already at a market price,” notes investment strategist of Arikapital Management Company Sergey Suverov. In this case, the expert believes, Ankara will be able to get a double benefit: to accumulate record volumes of “black gold” in its storage facilities, which can be sold in the future, when oil prices rise, and also to earn on the production of motor fuel, which will no longer fall under Western sanctions.