An oil tanker traffic jam has formed in Turkey following the European Union imposing a price cap on Russian oil; Turkey’s authorities have demanded any vessel crossing the country’s straits be “fully covered”, Financial Times reports.
“Around 19 crude oil tankers were waiting to cross Turkish waters on Monday. <…> The first tanker arrived on November 29 and has been waiting for six days,” FT quotes a ship broker who asked not to be named.
The queue, according to FT, is the first sign of the price cap potentially disrupting worldwide oil flows.
Four sources within the oil industry told Financial Times that Turkey had started demanding new proof of insurance following the sanctions being imposed. Among other things, Ankara requests “letters from their protection and indemnity providers, known as P&I Clubs, confirming that insurance cover would remain in place to cover incidents such as oil spills and collisions”.
The International Group of P&I Clubs thinks that Turkey’s request goes “well beyond” the information generally required. P&I providers said in a statement that they would not be able to “guarantee cover even in the case of a sanctions breach”.
On 4 December, the European Union published a decision to introduce a price cap on Russia’s oil at $60, valid starting from 5 December.
The decision was introduced “in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine”. A 45-days transition period is being introduced for vessels transporting crude oil from Russia purchased and loaded to a vessel prior to 5 December 2022 and unloaded at a destination port until 19 January 2023.
At the same time, there is evidence that Russia directly and indirectly purchased more than 100 tankers in the last year, Financial Times previously reported, noting that the country is seeking to establish a “shadow fleet” out of these tankers to bypass the ban on seaborne deliveries of oil which entered into force on 5 December as well as the oil price cap.
