Russia’s toxic oil sends tanker rates into a frenzy

It costs US$3.5mil (RM14.65mil) to hire a tanker to deliver a million barrels to Italy from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk – a voyage that should take no longer than a week.That’s a more-than 300% gain from before the invasion of Ukraine began.

FOR clues on how toxic Russian oil has become, look no further than the trade for tankers that export it.

It costs US$3.5mil (RM14.65mil) to hire a tanker to deliver a million barrels to Italy from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk – a voyage that should take no longer than a week.

That’s a more-than 300% gain from before the invasion of Ukraine began.

It also assumes traders can find an owner willing to risk letting their ship enter a region where five merchant ships have been blown up in the week since the attack started, and where the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has warned of an increasing risk of collateral damage to vessels.