The El-Hamra (click here) terminal has six tanks that can hold 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. It also makes it possible to mix Russian and Egyptian.
Russia appears to have found a new means of getting its oil to market (click here) with western sanctions looming for Moscow.
A cargo of about 700,000 barrels of Russian oil was delivered to Egypt’s El Hamra oil terminal on its Mediterranean coast early on July 24. A few hours later, another vessel collected a consignment from the port — which may have included some or all of the Russian barrels — according to vessel-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg.
The unusual move makes the cargo’s ultimate destination harder to track, adding to a trend of Russian oil shipments becoming increasingly obscured since European buyers began to shun them following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
El Hamra, operated by Egypt’s Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co., has six storage tanks, able to hold 1.5m bbl of crude, and a single buoy mooring facility for loading and unloading. The terminal was built to handle crude produced in Egypt’s western desert, creating possibilities to blend the Russian barrels with local volumes.
The owner of the El Hamra terminal did not respond to multiple attempts to contact it by phone....
...Transit Route
Egypt is already being used by Russia as a transit route for fuel oil. It’s unclear if El Hamra is a one-off, or will become a more commonly used port for Russian oil flows.
Previously, tankers carrying Russian crude have conducted ship-to-ship cargo transfers off the Spanish north African city of Ceuta and, more recently, in the mid-Atlantic. That’s an unusual location for such a tricky operation that’s normally carried out in sheltered near-shore locations.
Another crude cargo transfer appears to have taken place off Johor, near Singapore, in June. The area has already become a location for transshipping cargoes of Iranian crude heading to China.
A cargo of about 700,000 barrels of Russian oil was delivered to Egypt’s El Hamra oil terminal on its Mediterranean coast early on July 24. A few hours later, another vessel collected a consignment from the port — which may have included some or all of the Russian barrels — according to vessel-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg.
The unusual move makes the cargo’s ultimate destination harder to track, adding to a trend of Russian oil shipments becoming increasingly obscured since European buyers began to shun them following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
El Hamra, operated by Egypt’s Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co., has six storage tanks, able to hold 1.5m bbl of crude, and a single buoy mooring facility for loading and unloading. The terminal was built to handle crude produced in Egypt’s western desert, creating possibilities to blend the Russian barrels with local volumes.
The owner of the El Hamra terminal did not respond to multiple attempts to contact it by phone....
...Transit Route
Egypt is already being used by Russia as a transit route for fuel oil. It’s unclear if El Hamra is a one-off, or will become a more commonly used port for Russian oil flows.
Previously, tankers carrying Russian crude have conducted ship-to-ship cargo transfers off the Spanish north African city of Ceuta and, more recently, in the mid-Atlantic. That’s an unusual location for such a tricky operation that’s normally carried out in sheltered near-shore locations.
Another crude cargo transfer appears to have taken place off Johor, near Singapore, in June. The area has already become a location for transshipping cargoes of Iranian crude heading to China.
August 4, 2022
By Smith
...The El Hamra terminal, (click here) operated by the Egyptian company Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co., has six storage tanks with a total capacity of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil, and a single loading and unloading dock. The infrastructure is designed to store and move crude oil produced in Egypt's western desert, and the oil it receives from Russia can therefore be blended with local oil....
Supposedly Russia has admitted to the use of this route to circumvent the sanctions. If Russia's purpose is to circumvent sanctions, then Egypt also knows it is conducting illegal operations with Russia.
August 3, 2022
By Eamonn Sheridan
Bloomberg reporting that Moscow (click here) has for the first time ever used Egypt’s El Hamra oil terminal on its Mediterranean coast.
- 700k bbls of oil offloaded on July 24
- Another vessel collected a consignment from the port just a few hours later
- Experts say the highly unusual move makes the cargo’s ultimate destination much harder to track, adding to a trend whereby Russian oil shipments are becoming increasingly obscured since European and western buyers began to shun them following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
