The price of Russian Urals oil, shunned by many buyers amid Ukraine-related sanctions, has surged on the war in Iran, though costs are also rising, traders said on Tuesday.
With tankers from top exporter Saudi Arabia effectively blocked by Iranian threats to Gulf shipping, attention has returned to Russia, the world’s second-largest seller.
Urals crude from Russian ports was being offered at around $76 per barrel on Monday on a free on board (FOB) basis, Reuters data showed, up from $45 just two weeks ago.
The price of a Urals cargo loading from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk has jumped to around $54 million this week from about $35 million in February, according to Reuters calculations.
Russian sellers faced near negative margins on exports earlier this year, traders said.
Despite G7 and other efforts to cap Russian seaborne oil prices, Urals for delivery to Indian ports is now selling at a premium to benchmark Brent crude for the first time ever.
The United States last week granted Indian refiners a temporary waiver to resume imports of Russian crude already aboard tankers.
Yet traders said Russian sellers also face sharply higher costs. They said several vessels were fixed at around $22-23 million from Russia’s Baltic Sea ports to India amid a scarcity of the vessels.
That’s nearly double rates seen in early February and up about $5-8 million from late last week.
From Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, which resumed loadings on Friday after recent drone damage, freight costs also rose above $20 million to India, traders said.
Brent oil surged to more than $119 a barrel on Monday to its highest since mid-2022 amid supply cuts by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers.
Prices pared gains after U.S. President Donald Trump predicted the war in the Middle East could end soon.
(Reporting by Reuters)
