Oil-related shipping costs have risen after the United States announced tougher sanctions last week to deplete Russia's war coffers, a move that poses a major threat to Moscow's maritime distribution chain.

On January 10, the U.S. Treasury announced new measures to drain Russia’s energy revenues, including targeting major producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as 183 vessels sanctions, the vessels were "mainly oil tankers and oil tankers belonging to the shadow fleet". Owned by Russian fleet operator. "

The U.S. Treasury Department added that several designated tankers were transporting Russian and Iranian oil and further expanded sanctions on Russian marine insurance providers Ingosstrakh Insurance Company and AlfaStrakhovanie Group.

This would be a severe blow to Russia, which was forced to reroute its crude oil and petroleum product supplies to the Asia-Pacific region after European and G7 sanctions came into effect in December 2022 and February 2023. respectively.

Analyst company Vortexa told CNBC on January 7 that some 890 tankers have carried Russian oil (including crude oil and petroleum products) in the past six months, of which 107 (12% of the total) are subject to ship supervision. -The specific sanctions at the time.

These figures were not included in the January 10 announcement. On Wednesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency It is estimated that about 160 of the 183 tankers blocked last year transported more than 1.6 million barrels of Russian oil per day, accounting for 22% of Russia's seaborne exports during the same period.

The latest U.S. measures will also tighten the number of ships available for consignment by non-Russian parties, driving up shipping costs for other tankers. Since the announcement on January 10, the impact of the ban has spread to freight derivatives, with trading volume in forward freight agreement (FFA) contracts - which allow traders to hedge against freight rate fluctuations - jumping to 11,412 contracts on January 10 . The index reached 7,900 points on January 10, and exceeded 7,900 points on January 13 and 6,700 points on January 14, respectively, according to the Baltic Exchange. This compares to average daily trading volumes of 2,987 and 1,683 contracts in November and December, respectively.

Pricing data from Argus Media shows that between January 9 and 14, supertanker freight rates from the Middle East Gulf to the Asia Pacific, the oil industry's bellwether route, rose by more than 40%.

As a result, the sanctions "could severely disrupt Russian oil supply and distribution chains," the IEA warned, noting that Russian exports would be "hit by reductions in the shadow tanker fleet" and "the removal of shipping insurance, the impact on dominant oil companies restrictions". Russian oil traders and consumer markets mainly handle the designation of companies. "

Still, the agency did not incorporate the latest U.S. moves into its Russian supply forecast, noting that crude exports from the Eastern European country, a key member of the OPEC+ alliance, fell by 250,000 barrels per day month-on-month to 4.6 million barrels. Barrels per day in December.