North Asia

Estonia's Tax and Customs Board announced late Tuesday that it had detained in Estonian internal waters a container vessel sailing under the Bahamian Flag. The ship may have been involved in smuggling from Ecuador. The authority stated that there was "reason to believe" the vessel could have been used as a smuggling vessel. "The special police unit K-Commando boarded a ship. After?which?the vessel?was detained?under national supervision to carry out a Customs Inspection". They added that the ship, Baltic Spirit, is not a part of the Russian shadow fleet and it is also not subject to sanctions imposed by the European...

Due to a limited global supply of liquefied petroleum gas, Saudi Arabia's Aramco and Algeria's Sonatrach raised their official'selling prices' for the product in February between 1% and 5,3%. Saudi Aramco’s February OSP?increased $20 per metric ton, to $545?per ton For propane, the price has increased by $20 per ton. Butane LPG comes in two types: butane and propane. They have different boiling points. LPG is used primarily as a fuel for cars and heating, as well as a feedstock to make other petrochemicals. Sonatrach has increased its February OSP for propane from $500 to $25 per ton. For?butane, the...

A Russian state trading platform revealed on Thursday that Russia sold Domodedovo Airport, one of its largest and most modern airports in the country, to Sheremetyevo Airport, a subsidiary?of another Moscow-area airport. The sale price was?66 billion?roubles? ($869m) The auction was the 2nd attempt to sell the Airport, which was nationalised by the Prosecutor-General in June 2025. This was the latest in the series of seizures of state assets. The 'first auction, which was held on 20 January and set a price of 132.3 billion rubles as the starting point, failed because only one bidder was allowed to participate. The...

Three industry sources said that Russia's crude exports to its western ports will?decline? in February, compared with January, due to the increase of domestic refinery runs and the fewer scheduled maintenance visits to?plants?. According to?sources, the shipment of Russia's Urals crude, Siberian Light and KEBCO grades through the ports of Primorsk and Novorossiisk is expected to be around?2million barrels per daily (bpd) in the next month. This is down from about?2.2million bpd last January. The expected drop is due to the fact that Moscow intends to lift its ban on gasoline in February. This could spur refineries into producing more...

Ship tracking data revealed that the first naphtha shipment for Venezuela, as part of an oil deal reached between Caracas & Washington in this'month', arrived Friday on Venezuelan waters aboard a tanker chartered a trading house Vitol. Caracas, Washington and Venezuela agreed on a $2 billion oil deal this month after the U.S. captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. The agreement covers up to 50,000,000?barrels Venezuelan oil that is in storage. The agreement gives traders Vitol &?Trafigura first access to Venezuelan oil to resell to refineries worldwide. It also includes a?supply? of heavy naphtha, needed to dilute Venezuela's extra-heavy output. According...

Ukraine's wheat imports were relatively low in the first half January, despite Russian attacks on Ukrainian seaports. The Ukraine is one of the largest European wheat producers and exporters. Since the end last year, Russia's attacks on Ukrainian ports have accelerated, not only targeting port terminals, warehouses, and civilian vessels, but also increasing their intensity. UGA reported that Ukraine exported 292,000 metric tons of grain in the first six months of the year, compared to 293,000 tons during the same period in December. This compares with 610,000 tons between November 1-15. The?economy minister said that wheat exports have totaled 8.2...

According to weather stations and visuals, the biggest snowfall in 60 years occurred on 'Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. This resulted in a metre-high sand drift that buried cars and blocked building entrances. According to weather monitoring stations, in some areas over 2 m of snow (6.5 feet) has fallen during the first half January. This is after December's?3.7 m. Pictures showed four-wheel drive vehicles struggling to 'traction or being blocked by huge drifts of snow. Locals had to dig paths up to apartment building entrances. "I plan to go on a walk around ?the city tomorrow, though unfortunately the...

Industry sources said that the freight rates for tankers shipping Urals crude to India from Russia's western port have risen in this month. This is because bad weather has made fewer vessels and disrupted loading and unloading, and increased costs of insurance. Two oil tankers were struck by drones in the Black Sea Tuesday, including a tanker chartered by the U.S. oil giant Chevron. After drone attacks this week on two Greek-operated oil tankers, Greece has instructed its shipping fleet to take the most stringent security measures when sailing into Russian Black Sea ports. The average freight?costs for transporting Urals...

Data from industry sources showed that Russia's seaborne petroleum products exports were up 17% in December compared to November, at 9.069 millions metric tons. This was due to a higher fuel output and seasonal decreases in domestic demand. According to data, the oil product exports from Russian Baltic Ports -- Primorsk Vysotsk St. Petersburg Ust-Luga -- grew 8.2% on a month-over-month basis, reaching 5.253 millions tons. Market sources reported that the rise in prices was due to higher diesel shipments from Primorsk. Data shows that the oil exports from Black Sea and Azov Sea port grew 42.6%, to 3.038 millions...

The differential between Urals and Brent oil was stable on Thursday despite a low trading volume, but the discount for CPC Blend oil continued to widen when compared with Brent oil, traders reported. Urals cargoes were slow to load in January and many tankers had already been on the water?without a destination?, traders reported. Demand for 'the volumes in Asia wasn't high due to?the availability of alternatives? CPC Blend Oil values are under pressure due to recent attacks on tankers heading for the CPC terminal and the instability of the grade's oil exports. PLATTS WINDOW * ExxonMobil has offered to...

According to the shipping ministry, Greece has advised its shipping fleet to review security measures before sailing to Russian Black Sea ports after drone attacks this week on two Greek-operated tanks. Drones attacked two oil "tankers" on Tuesday, including one chartered U.S. oil giant Chevron as they sailed towards a Black Sea Terminal on Russia's Black Sea Coast. Greek-operated tankers are among the largest in the world and play a pivotal role for trade throughout?the Black Sea Region, which includes Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania, as well as Russia and Ukraine. In one of the documents that we saw that were...

The removal of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela could be the start of a larger U.S. effort to realign Latin America in a geoeconomical sense, thus limiting Russia's and China's ability to use the Western Hemisphere as a pressure-point on global commodity markets. Central America may be the next domino in the fall. This region has a lot of shipping lanes, and is close to checkpoints. It's a great place for both licit and illegal commerce. The Panama Canal handles approximately 40% of U.S. containers and 5% of world trade. Other transit routes include the Caribbean Sea and ports on the...

Urals crude differentials are under pressure after Thursday's'sellers' faced weak demand from India following a?trade?deal? that New Delhi made with Washington, which will result in India cutting purchases of Russian oil. The Russian oil market is increasingly exposed to China, so traders were forced to offer greater discounts to China as the largest buyer of Russian crude oil. The discounts on Russian oil exported to China have reached a new record this week, as sellers reduced prices to attract demand from the world's largest crude importer. They also cut their prices to offset the loss of India sales. PLATTS WINDOW...

Data from LSEG and market sources showed that Russia's seaborne gasoil and diesel exports increased 19% over the previous month. This was due to a seasonal decline in domestic demand, which prompted traders to ship out more. The data shows that exports were 4,6% lower than in January 2025, as drone attacks, maintenance and other factors affected the output. Sources said that the shipment of ultra-low sulphur diesel through the Baltic port Primorsk - Russia's largest port for?diesel imports - jumped 32.4% in one month, to a new record of 2.256 million tonnes, supported by an increase in production. The...

The Russian captain of the container ship that collided with a 'U.S. The London court found the Russian captain of the container ship that crashed into a?U.S. Vladimir Motin was the captain of the Solong tanker when it struck the Stena Immaculate, which had been anchored with just over 220,000 gallons of aviation fuel. The crash on March 10 started a fire that spread to both ships. Mark Pernia was a crew member of the Solong, a Filipino national whose remains have never been located and are presumed to be dead. Tom Little, the prosecutor at Motin's first trial last...

Calculations on Monday showed that the average daily supply of natural gas to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline by Russian energy giant Gazprom rose 10.3% year-on-year in 'January. After Ukraine decided not to renew a five-year deal for transit with Moscow, which expired in January 2025, the only remaining transit route is through Turkey. Calculations show that the total Russian gas supplied to Europe through TurkStream was 1.73 billion cubic meters (bcm) during January, compared with 1.57 bcm in the same period last year. According to calculations based on data from the European Gas Transmission Group Entsog, Russian?gas exported via...

Officials said that Saturday, parts of Ukraine and Moldova - including the capitals of both countries - were plunged into a blackout due to a "malfunction" of high voltage power lines. Later in the day, power was restored. The accident was not linked directly to war damages, but Ukraine's electricity grid suffered as a result of the cumulative impact of Russian airstrikes. This led to severe restrictions in the supply of electricity over the past few weeks. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, blamed ice accumulation on power lines for a cyberattack and dismissed it. In his video nightly address,...

The discount on Russian ESPO blend crude oil for cargoes loading in March has narrowed due to the brisk Chinese demand. Buyers rushed to secure barrels, while Indian refiners remained wary of Western sanctions. Four trade and industry sources report that Russian ESPO blend cargoes loaded in March were traded at a price of?about $7 to $8?per barrel less than ICE Brent to be delivered to Chinese ports. The majority of March-loading ESPO cargoes has been sold. Sources said that some ESPO cargoes loaded in February were sold at discounts of up to $9-$10 a barrel. ESPO blend traded between...

Traders said that the discounts for Russian ESPO blend crude oil for March-loading cargoes have shrunk due to a brisk Chinese demand as buyers rushed to secure barrels. Four trade and industry sources report that Russian ESPO blend cargoes loaded in March were sold at a price of $7-8 below ICE Brent for delivery to Chinese ports. The majority of March-loading ESPO cargoes has been sold. Sources said that some ESPO cargoes loaded in February were sold at discounts of up to $9-$10 per barrel. China, the biggest buyer of 'ESPO Blend Oil, loaded from Kozmino Port in eastern Russia...

Five people were killed in a Russian drone attack on a passenger train in the northeastern Ukraine, according to prosecutors. The President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called it terrorism. The prosecutor said that fragments of five bodies were found near the site of the strike in the Kharkiv region, located in the northeastern Ukraine. The train was operating from Chop near Ukraine's western border with Hungary and Slovakia to the town of Barvinkove. Online photos showed two carriages on fire next to a railbed covered in?snow. In any country, drone strikes on civilian trains would be viewed the same - as pure...

Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company, said Tuesday that a Russian attack had hit one of its facilities in a western area. The strike caused a fire and stopped operations. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukraine's power system. The company said in a statement that this was the 15th attack on their infrastructure since 2026. The impact resulted in a fire on the site. Sergii Korteskyi, Naftogaz's CEO, wrote on Facebook that the company immediately halted the technological processes in the facility for safety reasons and to prevent pollution....

A lawyer for the wife of the captain said that the captain was taken from British territorial waters to a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Military Special Forces, with a judicial seize warrant, captured the Russian flagged Marinera on the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, after pursuing the vessel for over two weeks, as part of Washington’s efforts to stop Venezuelan oil exports. The tanker was then moved to an area?off of the coasts of Scotland. Aamer Anwar is the lawyer for Natia Dzadzama's husband, Avtandil Kalandadze. COURT ORDER REVOKED Anwar stated that on Monday, the Scottish...

People familiar with the situation said that The Caspian Pipeline Consortium has berthed another tanker at its recently repaired SPM-3?at their Black Sea terminal, resuming stable oil loadings. They said that the Agistri tanker would be loading 130,000 tons oil at the SPM-3 'facility, on Tuesday, after the departure from the Paschalis DD which had finished loading on Monday. According to LSEG'shipping data,' the Agistri vessel can be seen near the SPM-3 facility at this moment on the interactive map. In late November, a drone attack by the Ukrainians destroyed one of CPC's mooring facilities. This forced CPC to run...

The regional governor reported that power was restored to the town where 'Russia's main navy base is located on Tuesday after a?four-day blackout caused by the?collapsed of aging electricity lines during the bad winter weather. Severomorsk is the home of Russia's most important naval command. It's located in the closed town on the?Barents Sea, Kola Bay. The Russian Navy's most important command is located in the closed town of Severomorsk, which is home to Russia's largest fleet of ballistic missile subs. It also controls a vast arsenal of nuclear warheads and missiles. On Tuesday, Andrei Chibis, governor of the larger?Murmansk...