Tag: Russia

Russia, Kazakhstan rescue over 100,000 people amid worst flooding in nearly seven decades

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Russia and Kazakhstan ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate after swiftly melting snow swelled mighty rivers beyond bursting point in the worst flooding in the area for at least 70 years.

The deluge of melt water overwhelmed scores of settlements in the Ural Mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, which local officials said had risen by metres in a matter of hours to the highest levels ever recorded.

The Ural River, Europe’s third longest which flows through Russia and Kazakhstan into the Caspian, burst through an embankment dam on Friday, flooding the city of Orsk just south of the Ural Mountains.

Downstream, water levels in Orenburg, a city of around 550,000, rose towards the critical level of 9.3 metres as sirens warned major floods were imminent. The water level is currently 9.14 metres.

Sirens in Kurgan, a city on the Tobol river, a tributary of the Irtysh, warned people to evacuate immediately. An emergency was also declared in Tyumen, a major oil producing region of Western Siberia – the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world.

“The difficult days are still ahead for the Kurgan and Tyumen regions,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “There is a lot of water coming.”

President Vladimir Putin spoke to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, where over 86,000 people have been evacuated due to flooding. Tokayev said the flooding was probably the worst in 80 years.

The most severely hit areas are Atyrau, Aktobe, Akmola, Kostanai, Eastern Kazakhstan, Northern Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions, most of which border Russia and are crossed by rivers originating in Russia such as the Ural and the Tobol.

In Russia, anger boiled over in Orsk when at least 100 Russians begged the Kremlin chief to help and chanted “shame on you” at local officials who they said had done too little.

The Kremlin said Putin was getting updated constantly on the situation but that he had no immediate plans to visit the flood zone as local and emergency officials were doing their best to cope with the deluge.

Evacuate Now

In Kurgan, a region with around 800,000 residents, drone footage showed traditional Russian wooden houses and the golden kupolas of Russian Orthodox Churches stranded among a vast expanse of water.

In Orenburg, a city of more than half a million, residents paddled along roads as if they were rivers. Dams and embankments were being strengthened as the Ural river rose to nearly 10 metres high.

Russian officials have said some people ignored calls to evacuate. Kurgan Governor Vadim Shumkov urged residents to take the warnings seriously.

“We understand you very well: It is hard to leave your possessions and move somewhere at the call of the local authorities,” Shumkov said.

“It’s better that we laugh at the hydrologists together later and praise God for the miracle of our common salvation. But let’s do it alive.”

In Kurgan, water levels were rising in the Tobol and Russia said 19,000 people were at risk in the region.

Rising water was also forecast in Siberia’s Ishim river, also a tributary of the Irtysh, which along with its parent, the Ob, forms the world’s seventh longest river system.

It was not immediately clear why this year’s floods were so bad as the snow melt is an annual event in Russia. Scientists say climate change has made flooding more frequent worldwide.

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Russia declares federal emergency in the flood-hit Orenburg region as evacuation efforts continue

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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MOSCOW: Russia’s government has declared on Sunday flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency, state media reported.

The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including 885 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. State news agency Tass said that a further 2,000 homes were flooded, bringing the total to nearly 6,300 in the region.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkovarrived arrived in Orsk — one of the most hard-hit cities — on Sunday to supervise rescue operations.

“I propose classifying the situation in the Orenburg region as a federal emergency and establishing a federal level of response,” the minister said, according to RIA Novosti.

Orsk, less than 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of the border with Kazakhstan, suffered the brunt of the floods which caused a dam to break on Friday, according to Orsk mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. By Sunday morning, 4,500 residential buildings in the city of 200,000 were flooded and evacuation efforts were still ongoing, Tass said.

A criminal probe has been launched to investigate suspected construction violations that may have caused the dam to break. Local authorities said the dam could withstand water levels up to 5.5 meters (nearly 18 feet). On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 9.3 meters (30.51 feet) and rising, Kozupitsa said. On Sunday, the level in Orsk reached 9.7 meters (31.82 feet), according to Russia’s water level information site AllRivers.

Officials in Orsk reported Sunday that four people had died, but said their deaths were unrelated to the flooding.

Officials in the regional capital (also called Orenburg) some 250 kilometres (155 miles) away from Orsk, wrote on Telegram Sunday that the situation in the city was “getting worse”, as water levels increased by 28 centimetres (11.02 inches) centimetres compared to the previous day. Over 1,300 homes flooded and 428 people evacuated, they said.

Footage from Orsk and Orenburg showed water covering the streets dotted with one-story houses.

The Ural River, about 2,428 kilometres- (1,509 miles) long, flows from the southern section of the Urals into the north end of the Caspian Sea, through Russia and Kazakhstan.

(Note: The image with the story shows rescuers making their way on a flooded residential area in Orsk, Russia, on April 6, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Credit: Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS)

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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US denies asking India to cut Russian oil imports amid price cap

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The United States has not asked India to cut Russian oil imports as the goal of sanctions and the G7-imposed $60 per barrel price cap is to have stable global oil supplies while hitting Moscow’s revenue, an American treasury official said on Thursday.

India has emerged as one of the top buyers of Russian sea-borne oil since Western nations imposed sanctions and halted purchases in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“It is important to us to keep the oil supply on the market. But what we want to do is limit Putin’s profit from it,” Eric Van Nostrand, who is performing the duties of U.S. Treasury assistant secretary for economic policy, said in New Delhi, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Van Nostrand said that buyers can purchase Russian oil at deeper discounts outside of the price cap mechanism, if they do not use Western services like insurance and broking, thus limiting Moscow’s sales avenues.

“They (Russia) have to sell oil for less,” he said.

The sanctions are intended to limit the options available to Russia to three: sell its oil under the price cap, offer deeper discounts to buyers if they circumvent Western services, or shut its oil wells, Van Nostrand added.

The price cap imposed by the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations, the European Union and Australia bans the use of Western maritime services such as insurance, flagging the transportation when tankers carry Russian oil priced at or above $60 a barrel.

Anna Morris, acting assistant secretary for terror financing at the U.S. Treasury, said that G7 nations had the option to review the price cap depending on market conditions or other factors.

As part of its wide-ranging sanction mechanism against Russian oil trade, the United States in February imposed sanctions on Russian state-run shipper Sovcomflot (SCF) and 14 of its crude oil tankers involved in Russian oil transportation.

Morris said that SCF vessels that have been identified in the recent rounds of sanctions “certainly carry with them the sanctions risk … the 14 vessels in particular that have been named are sanctioned vessels.”

The U.S. officials are in India this week meeting with government officials and business leaders to discuss cooperation on anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and implementation of the price cap.

Asked about the sale to Western nations of refined products produced from Russian oil, Morris said that would not breach the sanctions.

“Once Russian oil is refined, from a technical perspective it is no longer Russian oil. If it is refined in a country and then sent forward, from a sanctions perspective that is an import from the country of purchase it is not an import from Russia.”

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Ukraine fires more than 40 drones against Russia in one of its biggest air attacks of the war

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ukraine fired more than 40 drones into Russia’s bordering Rostov region, Moscow defense officials said Friday, in what appeared to be one of its biggest air attacks in the war and as Kyiv’s forces step up their assaults on Russian soil.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said a total of 44 drones were “intercepted and destroyed” in the Morozovsky district, more than 100 kilometre from the border. The attack damaged a power substation, Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev said.

Russian media reported that there is a military airfield near the town of Morozovsk, but it was unclear whether the airfield was the target of the attack.

The Russian defense ministry said nine more drones were intercepted over Russia’s border regions of Kursk, Belgorod, Krasnodar and the nearby Saratov region.

Ukrainian officials rarely comment on such strikes and provided no immediate response.

Drone warfare is a key feature of the war, which has extended into a third year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. On the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where fighting is largely bogged down, low-cost drones are used by both sides to knock out expensive military hardware.

The Kremlin’s forces have used large numbers of Iranian-designed Shahed drones to bombard urban areas of Ukraine. Kyiv, in turn, has developed small but fast-growing defense industry where drones, including deadly unmanned sea vessels, are proving effective.

Russian authorities have long accused Ukraine of launching regular drone attacks on power plants, oil refineries and other targets in western regions of Russia near the border. Last month, Ukraine fired a barrage of 35 drones at such targets, Russia said.

Some attacks have reached deep into Russia, including Moscow and as far as 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Ukraine.

Ukraine cannot match the scale of Russia’s military, however. Last week, Moscow launched a a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hitting regions across the country.

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US pressures Russia to embrace UN push against nukes in space

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Joe Biden administration pushed Russia to support a US-backed resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would warn countries against placing nuclear weapons in orbit, after reports emerged that President Vladimir Putin may be planning to do so.

“We have heard President Putin say that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space,” White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday. “So we look forward to Russia voting in favor of this resolution. There should be no reason why not, and if they do, then I think that should open up some really legitimate questions to Mr. Putin about what his intentions really are.”

The resolution from the US and Japan would underscore that countries “should not develop nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction designed to be placed in orbit.” If adopted, the proposal would reaffirm expectations that countries must “fully comply” with their obligations under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons in orbit.

The US unveiled plans for the resolution weeks after Washington said Moscow had plans to develop an anti-satellite space weapon. People familiar with the matter have said the US told allies that Russia could deploy a nuclear weapon or a mock warhead into space as early as this year. Putin has denied the claims.

Kirby said the resolution would be brought to a vote next week. Russia has veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council, and one of its diplomats said in March that the draft was a propaganda stunt by Washington.

Also Read: Joe Biden tells Benjamin Netanyahu US support hinges on protecting civilians

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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Russian antitrust agency complains to Apple over users’ limited payment services

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Russia’s antitrust agency on Thursday said it had written to Apple, asking the US tech giant to explain why Russian users of Apple devices do not have access to the full functionality of banking and payment services.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside US business hours.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Apple around $26 million in the last two years related to what it described as Apple’s abuse of its dominant position concerning the mobile apps market and in-app payments.

Apple has previously “respectfully disagreed” with a FAS ruling that Apple’s distribution of apps through its iOS operating system gave its own products a competitive advantage.

The FAS said most Russian banks had been removed from the App Store and that Apple was not letting users install apps from anywhere but the App Store, making it impossible for Russian banks and contactless services to function.

“The company’s actions contain signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation,” the FAS said in a statement. “The service sent a letter to the company about the need to submit a detailed, motivated position on this issue to the agency.”

Apple last month made a major concession in its battle to protect the dominance of its App Store on iPhones and other devices in Europe, saying developers would be free to distribute their apps directly to consumers. The changes were made to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US sanctions affect Russian efforts to repair refineries attacked by Ukrainian drones

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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When engineers at Russian oil firm Lukoil,  discovered a turbine had broken at their largest refinery on January 4, they quickly realised the problem was far from trivial.

There was only one company that knew how to repair the gasoline-producing unit at the NORSI refinery, located on the Volga River, some 430 km (270 miles) east of Moscow. The problem was that the company is American, according to five sources familiar with the incident.

The firm, petroleum engineering multinational UOP, had withdrawn from Russia after the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“They (the engineers) rushed around to find spare parts and they couldn’t find anything,” said a source close to Lukoil, who asked not to be named because he is not allowed to speak to the media. “Then the whole unit just stopped.”

Four other sources said the unit – a catalytic cracker used to convert heavier hydrocarbons into gasoline – has been out of production since January and it was not clear when it could be repaired due to a lack of expertise inside Russia. The KK-1 unit is one of only two catalytic crackers at the plant.

As a result, the NORSI refinery – the fourth-biggest in Russia – has cut gasoline production by 40%, according to two of the sources. Lukoil did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The Lukoil refinery is an example of wider problems in Russia’s energy sector where some oil firms are struggling in the face of Western sanctions to repair their refineries, built with the help of US and European engineering firms, according to at least 10 Russian industry sources.

The difficulties have been exacerbated by Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck at least a dozen Russian refineries this year, the industry sources said. The attacks forced Russian refineries to shut in some 14% of capacity in the first quarter, according to Reuters calculations.

“If the stream of drones continues at this rate and Russian air defences don’t improve, Ukraine will be able to cut Russian refining runs quicker than Russian firms will be able to repair them,” said Sergey Vakulenko, an expert on Russia’s energy industry and non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank.

Russia’s top energy official, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, said last week that the damaged NORSI facilities should resume operations within a month or two, as Russian firms were working to produce the spare parts needed.

He also said other Russian refineries have boosted production after the drone attacks and there was no shortage on the local fuel market.

Russia’s energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Minister Nikolai Shulginov said on Wednesday all refineries would be fixed by June, without providing further details.

The NORSI refinery, near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, has a capacity of 405,000 metric tons a month of gasoline or 11% of Russia’s total.

The current outage would cost Lukoil nearly $100 million in lost revenues a month, based on an average Russian gasoline price of $587 per metric ton, according to Reuters’ calculations.

Honeywell International Inc , the parent company for UOP, said in a statement to Reuters it had not provided any equipment, parts, products or services to the refinery at Nizhny Novgorod since February 2022, nor to the independently-managed Slavyansk ECO refinery.

The Slavyansk refinery was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack on March 18 and caught fire briefly.

“We are actively working to identify and interrupt any possible diversion of our products into Russia via third parties,” Honeywell told Reuters by email. The company said it complies with all applicable export license requirements, sanctions laws and regulations.

The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on thousands of Russian targets since the invasion of Ukraine and around 1,000 companies have announced their departure from the country.

Russia’s export-focused $2.2-trillion economy has proved more resilient to two years of the unprecedented sanctions than either Moscow or the West anticipated.

War of attrition

Western companies such as UOP and Swiss engineering group ABB have supplied technology and software to all the 40 biggest refineries in Russia over the last two decades, according to more than 10 Russian industry sources. Each refinery has a combination of Russian and foreign equipment.

ABB confirmed to Reuters it stopped taking new orders in Russia once the war broke out in February 2022, and has no plans to return to Russia once it has fulfilled its existing contractual obligations, a spokesperson said. The company did not provide details of those obligations.

None of the five sources suggested the turbine failure in January at NORSI was a result of drone attacks. But the sources said the problems at the plant only became worse after NORSI was hit for the first time by Ukrainian drones in February when other pieces of equipment were damaged, putting additional strain on the entire refinery.

As in the United States, the price of gasoline is a politically sensitive subject in Russia and authorities try to limit price rises. Recent measures included imposing a ban on gasoline exports for 6 months in February.

Ukraine says it attacks Russian refineries because it wants to undermine the Kremlin’s war machine by reducing state revenues and cutting fuel to the army.

“Drones are tens, if not hundreds of times cheaper than the cost of repairs, which is important in a war of attrition,” said Vakulenko, who was a former head of strategy at Russian energy major Gazprom Neft. He left the firm and Russia days after the start of the Ukraine war.

Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter. It has rerouted most of its crude and products exports to Asia and Africa since Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow.

Should Moscow face a steep decline in refinery output, it would be forced to cut fuel exports in favour of crude, according to more than 10 Russian oil traders.

Russia supplies crude to just a few large buyers, such as China, India and Turkey, but its portfolio of fuels buyers is comparatively broader as it can ship to smaller consumers without large refining systems in Africa and South America.

Russia’s refining industry dates back to the 1940s, when the United States provided equipment under the lend-lease program during World War Two.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian oil firms invested tens of billions of dollars in upgrades with the help of firms such as UOP and ABB.

UOP helped upgrade Norsi and Slavyansk ECO refineries. It did not specify which other Russian refineries it has serviced, in response to Reuters’ questions.

The United States has imposed sanctions on companies around the world, including in Turkey, to prevent the transfer of technology to Russia.

Countries under Western sanctions such as Russia and Iran have long managed to find loopholes to obtain spare parts for Western-made equipment such as planes or cars.

But refining equipment is much rarer and more specialized; Western firms have tightened checks to prevent Russia from importing spare parts via third countries, one of the five sources said.

Two of the sources said Lukoil had asked Chinese companies to repair the KK-1 unit at Norsi. The sources didn’t name the Chinese companies. Lukoil declined to comment when asked if it had approached China.

“China has got the technology. But very often it would mean a full costly replacement of the unit rather than a normal, cheap, regular repair,” one of the sources said.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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Russia’s third-biggest refinery targeted by Ukraine in a drone strike, production takes a hit

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s third largest oil refinery on Tuesday about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the front lines, hitting a core unit which processes about 155,000 barrels of crude refining per day.

Russian officials said its jamming devices locked onto a Ukrainian drone near Tatneft’s Taneco refinery, which has an annual production capacity of more than 17 million tonnes (340,000 barrels per day).

A fire broke out at the refinery that was extinguished within 20 minutes, the state RIA news agency said, adding that production had not been disrupted.

Pictures from the scene indicated the drone hit the primary refining unit, CDU-7, at the Taneco refinery. The unit accounts for around a half of the plant’s total annual production capacity.

“A drone attack was carried out on one of the enterprises in Nizhnekamsk,” Ramil Mullin, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk, said.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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Exclusive: Iran alerted Russia to security threat before Moscow attack

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Iran tipped off Russia about the possibility of a major “terrorist operation” on its soil ahead of the concert hall massacre near Moscow last month, three sources familiar with the matter said.

In the deadliest attack inside Russia in 20 years, gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers on March 22 at the Crocus City Hall, killing at least 144 people in violence claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

“Days before the attack in Russia, Tehran shared information with Moscow about a possible big terrorist attack inside Russia that was acquired during interrogations of those arrested in connection with deadly bombings in Iran,” said one source.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said in January it had arrested 35 people linked to twin bombings on Jan. 3 in the southeastern city of Kerman that killed nearly 100 people. On Jan. 19, the ministry said it had arrested a commander of Islamic State’s Afghanistan-based branch ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K).

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Iran blasts, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. U.S. intelligence sources said ISIS-K had carried out both the Jan. 3 attacks in Iran and the March 22 shootings in Moscow.

Islamic State once occupied large swathes of Iraq and Syria, imposing a reign of terror and inspiring lone wolf attacks in Western countries, but was declared territorially defeated in 2017.

However ISIS-K, one of its most fearsome branches, has raised the group’s profile again with large-scale bloodshed.

ISIS-K, named after an old term for a region that encompassed parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

‘SIGNIFICANT OPERATION’

A second source, who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the information Tehran provided to Moscow about an impending attack had lacked specific details regarding timing and the exact target.

“They (the members of ISIS-K) were instructed to prepare for a significant operation in Russia… One of the terrorists (arrested in Iran) said some members of the group had already travelled to Russia,” the second source said.

A third source, a senior security official, said: “As Iran has been a victim of terror attacks for years, Iranian authorities fulfilled their obligation to alert Moscow based on information acquired from those arrested terrorists.”

Iran’s foreign ministry and the Kremlin did not reply to a request for comment on this story. The White House had no comment on the matter.

A source familiar with the U.S. intelligence on an impending attack in Russia said it was based on interceptions of “chatter” among ISIS-K militants.
Challenging the U.S. assertions, Russia has said it believes Ukraine was linked to the attack, without providing evidence. Kyiv has strongly denied the assertion.

It is harder, however, for Russia to dismiss intelligence from diplomatic ally Iran on the attack, which raised questions over the effectiveness of Russian security services. Moscow and Tehran, both under Western sanctions, have deepened military and other cooperation since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

TAJIK NATIONALS

Both the attacks in Kerman and near Moscow involved Tajik nationals. ISIS-K has aggressively recruited from the impoverished former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, security experts say.

Sources said Iran had discussed its security concerns with Tajikistan. A diplomatic source in Tajikistan confirmed that Tehran had recently discussed with Dushanbe the issue of increased involvement of ethnic Tajiks in militant activities.

Islamic State harbours a virulent hatred for Shi’ites — Iran’s dominant sect and also the targets of its affiliate’s attacks in Afghanistan. It views them as apostates.

In 2022 Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran that killed 13 people. Tehran identified the attacker as a Tajik national.

Earlier attacks claimed by Islamic State include twin bombings in 2017 that targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Indian refiners buy more US crude as Russia sanctions tighten

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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More than 250,000 barrels per day of US crude is set to arrive in India next month, the highest in more than a year, ship tracking data showed, amid tighter enforcement of sanctions on Russian crude.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, is looking to diversify its oil supplies as fresh US sanctions on Moscow threaten to dent Russian oil sales to India, the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne crude.

About 7.6 million barrels of oil, or 256,000 barrels per day (bpd), were headed to India on three very large crude carriers and three Suezmax vessels, according to ship tracking firm Kpler.

The ships, which were largely headed to India’s west coast, were chartered by Reliance Industries, Vitol, Equinor and Sinokor, among others, according to data from financial firm LSEG.

India was the top buyer of Russian oil last year after other groups retreated from purchases following Western sanctions on Moscow for its invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Last month, the U.S. tightened efforts to reduce Russia’s oil trade adding sanctions on state-owned shipping firm Sovcomflot and 14 crude oil tankers involved in Russian oil transportation.

India’s Reliance, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, will not buy Russian oil loaded on tankers operated by Sovcomflot after recent U.S. sanctions, sources told Reuters last week.

More Indian refiners plan to shun Sovcomflot vessels, which may weigh on imports of Russian oil and leave Russia with fewer outlets for its flagship product, sources said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow