Russian oil worth $1.3B is stuck at sea on tankers due to US sanctions, as China and India refuse to buy.

According to Bloomberg, Russian crude oil is trapped at sea because of sanctions imposed by the US in January. The value of the raw material being transported is $1.35B. Approximately 7.7 million barrels of crude oil from Sakhalin projects and 12 million barrels from the Arctic have been on tankers for more than two weeks, and in some cases, even longer.

Additionally, the volume of oil stranded at sea is increasing. India has completely stopped receiving oil from the Arctic, as all tankers operating in that direction have fallen under sanction. Chinese refineries have also partially halted oil imports. The total volume of oil blocked at sea is equivalent to nearly 6.5 days of Russia’s total seaborne exports.

This exacerbates the Russian Ministry of Finance’s fears that the 2025 federal budget deficit could exceed the planned figure by about 1% of GDP if current Russian oil prices, around $60 per barrel, persist. The budget set the price at $70 per barrel.