By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

A cargo of crude oil from sanctioned Russian giant Rosneft has made an 11-week-long meandering trip around Europe and Asia in search of buyers and although it has anchored off a sanctioned Chinese import port, it’s not certain it has reached its final destination yet.

The Fortis tanker with about 700,000 barrels of now sanctioned Russian oil dropped anchor near the Chinese port of Rizhao on the east coast on Tuesday, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

The Fortis did not make the entire trip from Russia’s western port on the Baltic Sea. The crude cargo from Rosneft began the journey on the Ailana tanker from the Russian export terminal of Ust-Luga at the end of September.   

Following a trip around Europe into the Mediterranean, and through the Suez Canal, the Ailana arrived near India at the end of October. 

But by then the U.S. had already slapped sanctions on top Russian oil producer Rosneft and the second-largest, Lukoil, to force Russia to genuine talks about ending the war in Ukraine. 

India stopped importing any crude known to have originated from or handled by affiliates of Rosneft and Lukoil to avoid angering the Trump Administration further. 

So the Ailana idled off Mumbai for two weeks, according to Bloomberg’s ship-tracking. Then most of the cargo was transferred onto the Fortis tanker which had shown destinations in India and South Korea before anchoring off the Rizhao port, which the U.S. Treasury also sanctioned in October as part of the pressure campaign on China over its purchases of Iranian crude.   

Despite being very close to the Rizhao port, it’s not certain the Fortis would offload the cargo there, according to Bloomberg. 

The three-month long trip and the ship-to-ship (STS) transfer suggest that buyers, especially in India, are steering clear of the sanctioned Russian companies and their cargoes. 

The U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil upended all previous plans by Indian refiners, who hastened to withdraw from the spot market for Russian crude in December.

India’s Bharat Petroleum and India Oil Corporation have bought Russian crude from non-sanctioned companies for January delivery, at a discount of $6-$7 to Brent crude, reports emerged last week.