A sanctioned tanker carrying Iranian crude has abruptly changed destination from a port on India’s west coast to an import terminal in China, in a move suggesting that India would not be imminently importing its first crude from Iran in seven years.
The crude tanker Ping Shun, which the United States sanctioned last year for dealing with Iranian crude, signaled earlier this week that it was headed to the port of Vadinar on the west coast of India.
However, the latest positioning of the Ping Shun, at least according to its AIS tracker, signals it is currently en route to the port of Dongying in China, per data in MarineTraffic.
The destination could still change in the coming days, but for now it looks like India may not be importing the crude from this particular tanker.
Last month, the U.S. issued waivers on the purchase of Russian and Iranian crude on tankers in a desperate attempt to curb the surge in international crude oil prices.
The state refiners in India, the world’s third-largest crude importer, have not shown willingness to buy Iranian crude that has now been ‘unsanctioned’ by the U.S. for a month, amid concerns about shipping, insurance, and payments, sources with knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg last week.
While refiners, especially in India, are snapping up Russian cargoes, state-controlled Indian and Chinese firms are reluctant to wade into trade with Iranian barrels.
India, which stopped importing Iranian crude in 2019 to comply with the U.S. sanctions, is now scrambling for crude supply as its imports from the other Middle Eastern producers account for about half of all its crude purchases.
However, refiners are hesitant to take on the Iranian crude they have been pitched in recent days, as concerns about the payment, currency, and shipping currently outweigh their willingness to entangle themselves into a trade that could become illegitimate again in just a few weeks.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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