- Over 3.7 million barrels of Russian diesel are sitting on ships idling in waters near Brazil, Bloomberg reports.
- Though reasons are unclear, it marks the latest delay in Russian energy flows amid sanctions.
- More Russian ships bound for Brazil are veering off course from their expected routes.
Tankers loaded with millions of barrels of diesel are drifting along the coast of Brazil, Bloomberg reports, the latest delay in Russia's oil shipments amid the West's sanctions.
Bloomberg said Wednesday that vessels carrying over 3.7 million barrels of Russian diesel fuel are languishing in waters off the world's fifth-largest nation, according to data from Kpler.
The reason and how many ships are waiting remain unknown, but the surplus underscores the growing bottlenecks in Russian energy deliveries, amidst escalating US and UK sanctions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Bloomberg said 3.7 million barrels covers roughly two weeks of imports for the Latin American nation.
As more sanctions are put into effect on Russia's economy, oil and other energy commodity exports exports being shunned by many buyers, including long-time customers like India, which has ramped up US crude oil imports in recent months.
The delays and rejections of its energy shipments have caused Russia to admit that secondary sanctions are choking its oil exports, particularly the trade barriers targeting non-US or EU entities' dealings with Russia.
Meanwhile, there's still 2.8 million barrels of diesel on its way toward Brazil, with much of it traversing the Atlantic, and Bloomberg said traders wouldn't ship them out if they couldn't offload the cargoes
More ships leaving Russian ports bound for Brazil, but their paths hint they're not heading there anytime soon, Bloomberg said. In March, Brazil also brought in diesel-type fuel from the UAE and Kuwait.