Oil sanctions - What tougher US sanctions to curb Russian oil supply means to China and India.

Kpler - a company that provides data and analytics solutions for commodities, energy, and maritime markets - reports that 143 sanctioned oil tankers had shipped out over 530 million bbls of Russian crude in 2024.

1) New sanctions look set to disrupt Russian oil supply to top buyers China and India.

2) Triggered reaction will see Chinese & Indian refiners seek more oil from Mideast, Africa, Americas, thus driving up spot crude prices and freight costs.

3) In the midst of it, oil traders had warned of Chinese independents cut their refinery runs if ESPO supply hit.

Note: ESPO Blend (ESPO-DUB crude oil) is Russia's flagship grade in Asian market loading from the Kozmino port, used to trade at a premium to both the Brent and Dubai benchmarks as its quality and close loading point made it very popular among refiners in China.

My radar will be trained on activities at the fire-shore of Pengerang, Johor, if ghost tankers will escalate their actives for Russian and Iranian supplies this year.