The flow of Russian crude oil imports by sea to the European Union (EU) finally came to a halt when sanctions against it came into effect on December 5.
This caused President Vladimir Putin to turn to Asia with tankers beginning to flood the continent and the Suez Canal for shipments to India and China.
As a result, the influx rose by more than 3 million barrels per day in the week to December 9, accounting for 89% of all crude oil shipped from Russian ports that week, according to Bloomberg.
However, the reality is that more than half of the crude oil shipped from Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic ports to the Suez Canal has no destination.
It is not clear whether all the oil has been sold, or it may depend on the hope of selling before reaching the destination.
So far, Putin has yet to respond to the sanctions and the imposition of a $60 per barrel price cap by Western allies.
The suspension of pipeline shipments could be Moscow's next consideration, which is seen to be detrimental to countries such as Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Meanwhile, the amount of crude oil on ships bound for China, India and Turkey combined with ships that have not indicated their final destination, jumped to 2.73 million barrels a day in the four weeks to December 9.
Meanwhile, Russian oil shipments to EU countries reportedly fell to 215,000 barrels a day in the 28 days to December 9, with Bulgaria becoming the only European destination for the black liquid from Moscow.
Who would have thought that the Russia-Ukraine war would have such an impact in less than a year. Europe, which was previously heavily dependent on Russian oil, was forced to give it up as punishment to Putin for invading Ukraine.
