Early winter storms have delayed loadings at the Novorossiysk and Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminals and disrupted the schedules of crude deliveries of the Urals and CPC Blend grades in November and December, according to the sources.
One source working with the port told Reuters:
- Weather conditions in Novorossiysk are terrible. Nearly every cargo loading has been delayed
- The loading schedule of the Novorossiysk terminal for last month and this month has been upended, and loadings are 1 to 5 days behind the original schedule
Congestion at the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the straits connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, is not helping either, and the round Mediterranean-Black Sea trip for a vessel has now nearly tripled to up to 20 days in December, from seven days on average for 2021, according to Riverlake tanker data on Refinitiv Eikon’s terminal.
As a result of the disrupted loadings and travel schedules, shipping costs have increased for Black Sea cargoes of Russian crude, while the cargoes are being offered on a free on board (FOB) basis, which does not include freight costs for suppliers.
Cargoes loading the Urals blend at Novorossiysk have seen their discount to cargoes loading at the port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea widen in recent weeks.
Author: Charles Kennedy
