On December 5th, Europe imposed sanctions on Russian oil, restructuring global oil trading routes. The elongation of oil transportation distances directly catalyzes a major cycle in oil transportation. Currently, the situation is that crude oil from the Urals region of Russia is loaded onto Aframax tankers at the ports of Primorsk or Ust-Luga, for short-haul trips to Hamburg or Rotterdam in Europe. Starting on December 5th, Europe began to boycott Russian crude oil, forcing Russia to transport oil to Asia through less efficient routes. As the oil fields operate continuously, there is currently no pipeline leading to Asia. When Russian oil storage facilities are full, the only way is to transport the crude oil to India and China by tankers. The current approach is for Russia to use Aframax tankers to transfer crude oil from near the coast to Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), which takes several weeks, and after the transfer is completed, the VLCC will sail east for two months, unload, return to the Baltic Sea, also requiring two months.Previously, Russian crude oil required approximately 1-2 weeks in the economic activity cycle, but now it must be extended to 4 months, which may further exacerbate the shortage of ship capacity and rising freight rates.The significant extension of the transportation cycle now requires an additional 80 VLCC ships to truly transport crude oil to the far east.
In summary, the original trade routes between Russia and Europe were mainly: ① Baltic Sea route: departing from the ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, with main block orders...