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skydivingbear t1_j1v0pqg wrote

None of the countries that imposed the cap buy Russian oil though. Wait why am I expecting anything Russia does to make any sense

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pete1901 t1_j1v2g08 wrote

On paper they don't but there are a huge number of off shore ship to ship transfers of oil happening these days which allow circumventing of the rules.

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The-link-is-a-cock t1_j1vfaqe wrote

Oil laundering

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Nargodian t1_j1wodau wrote

I feel for the poor sod who has to file off the oil molecules' serial numbers.

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Acewrap t1_j1wqsx2 wrote

It's not much, but it's dishonest work

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sudo_rm-rf t1_j1wv3xl wrote

You joke, but oil has a distinct molecular fingerprint that’s hard to obfuscate.

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Nargodian t1_j1wwc7h wrote

Distinct in what context? Is it which oil field it was drawn from? If my GCSE chemistry is correct: crude oil is just a bunch of different hydrocarbon chains. I suppose there may be other molecules kicking around. Is it just the composition of theses molecules in the crude that demark it.

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sudo_rm-rf t1_j1wwodm wrote

Correct. Trace elements. I’m less certain about refined products since at that point you’re essentially doing purification.

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valeyard89 t1_j1xggfm wrote

whjy do you think they kidnapped all those kids?

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rubywpnmaster t1_j1vpii9 wrote

The insurance issue is going to bjork that up royally in January. Ships holding Russian crude will basically be barred from having the required insurance needed to dock in any major western port.

Also, ship to ship transfers are high risk when in port. Doing them on the high seas off the coast of Portugal is a disaster waiting to happen. You could see said countries militaries seizing those vessels WHEN this happens.

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JimmyEDI t1_j1vsrmn wrote

I don’t know about STS out the coast at Portugal, can you link me a source to these? The frequency of the STS are higher in the Med, The gulf, and the Indian Ocean. They are nutters but they do care for themselves. Also the military can’t seize a tanker if they are not readily visible/transponder is off.

The insurance aspect is however something that does stop them offloading. Which is what was seen by Istanbul.

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Tony2Punch t1_j1vrkhu wrote

Don’t that just have to switch insurers to someone who doesn’t give a shit Ie India

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putsch80 t1_j1vx5za wrote

There aren’t many non-Western insurers, and for those that exist their insurance is often not considered sufficient/creditworthy by western ports where these ships could dock.

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Tony2Punch t1_j1wc7cz wrote

India just hit the news because they were considering doing this

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rubywpnmaster t1_j1xudt9 wrote

Yep the insurer has to be able to prove that they can cover what they are insuring against to be worth a damn.

US insurers only hold 8 trillion in cash and investments to be able to cover their asses. Totally easy industry to jump into.

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isysdamn t1_j1we3d3 wrote

It would probably also block them from using any of the canal systems; they are going to end up massive costs attached to their oil industry.

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dogerell t1_j1vfzo7 wrote

Im wondering why you're mentioning this since in the rare event a country imposing the cap buys rus oil illegally, ship to ship, is already banned from doing so.

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JimmyEDI t1_j1vhkpi wrote

There are ways to circumnavigate Ship to Ship transfers. Most notable of which entails putting the ship at danger by switching off the transponder or ghosting its location to somewhere else. STS transfers are down but the consequence for everyone is high, not just the Russians. It’s a difficult ecosystem, you have refineries, tankers, consumers all vying for the stuff. Russian oil will be used by Ukrainians in their vehicles and they won’t even know it.

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Dancing-Wind t1_j23zx7k wrote

The goal is not to embargo Russian oil - the goal is to reduce its profitability, hence the price cap. Sure 3rd parties will try to bypass the cap but not for free. Despite all the pleadges of friendship chinese and indians are buying russian oil below market price - and that is fundamentally the goal. Also 60 cap is quite high so I imagine ppl will not bother to doge caps if its already trading at around that.

of course Russians might try to still bypass it and accept sub 60 final price for the principle of it and/or to be ready when the cap drops to 50 or 40$

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Omgbrainerror t1_j1w233h wrote

"huge numbers"?

Source to your statment please. Twitter isnt a source.

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JimmyEDI t1_j1w4j7r wrote

Tankertrackers.com take out a sub as Data isn’t free.

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younggundc t1_j1ydwet wrote

So in other words it’s just for optics, so he can make headlines and appears to be disciplining those westerners!

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anonk1k12s3 t1_j1weqt4 wrote

Oh they do.. EU is still buying Russian oil, even the US is.. it’s well documented.. they just don’t buy it direct.

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