LONDON (Reuters) – At least 65 oil tankers have dropped anchor at multiple locations, including off the coasts of China and Russia, since the United States announced a new sanctions package on Jan. 10, ship tracking data showed on Monday.
Five of those tankers were stationary off Chinese ports and a further seven dropped anchor off Singapore, with others halting near Russia in the Baltic Sea and the Far East, according to Reuters’ analysis based on MarineTraffic and LSEG ship tracking data.
The U.S. Treasury on Friday imposed sanctions on Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM and Surgutneftegaz, as well as on 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, as it targets the revenues Moscow has used to fund its war with Ukraine.
The halt in trading for these tankers adds to further pressure on vessels already hit by previous U.S. sanctions.
These include another 25 oil tankers that were stationary around various locations, including off Iranian ports and also near to the Suez Canal, ship tracking analysis showed on Monday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; editing by Mark Heinrich and Sharon Singleton)