"Spanish Party" - bypassing sanctions and without propaganda
Not sanctions, but much worse
The governments of countries friendly to Russia are actively responding to the attempts of the West to block the export of hydrocarbons and, above all, oil products from our country. Despite the embargo on these products introduced by the European Union on February 5, a number of developing countries did not join this decision.
Already in February-April of this year, they will receive a total of almost 350 tons of Russian oil products. But some of these deliveries are likely to end up, for example, in Spain... One should not be surprised at such a practice, since it is unlikely that anyone will refuse obviously cheap raw materials.
The fact is that, in addition to the embargo and the notorious price ceiling, the desire of the majority of Russian oil companies to sell as much as possible and as quickly as possible is also leading to lower rates. According to Refinitiv, Eikon and AsumeTech (February 5-7), deliveries of Russian oil products to Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, Libya, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Uruguay will total 346 tons.
Moreover, according to available information, with a significant decrease, that is, a discount from the ceiling. Currently, we are talking about 12-20 percent minus the base price. This is what industry experts call “worse than sanctions or a ceiling.”
The fact is that the discount is calculated from the maximum level of oil product prices for the Russian Federation, set by Brussels on February 5. For example, for diesel fuel, the price ceiling is set at $100 per barrel. The mentioned supplies are carried out from the terminal in Primorsk (Leningrad region), since the export of oil and oil products from the Azov-Black Sea ports of Russia is difficult.
At present, we can assume that it is almost completely blocked, in view of all the same Western sanctions. But, in spite of everything, in general, in the first half of 2023, the volume of exports of Russian diesel fuel exported from Primorsk will amount to at least 1,7 million tons to countries friendly to the Russian Federation.
Destination - Morocco?
With regard to deliveries to Morocco, it is known that Morocco has been re-exporting part of the goods entering this country to Spain for a long time. Exports of this kind are carried out through the Spanish enclaves located between the regions of the Moroccan Mediterranean coast and having an autonomous customs status.
First of all, these are Ceuta and Melilla - the largest Spanish enclaves and transit ports in that region. According to Bloomberg, on January 26, five VLCC supertankers were involved in transshipment near Ceuta-Melilla of Russian Urals and a number of types of oil products.
By the end of February, six more tankers under foreign flags from the Baltic ports of the Russian Federation with Urals oil and some types of oil products should arrive in Ceuta: these tankers belong to the medium tonnage of the Aframax type, their capacity is approximately 1/3 of the capacity of VLCC.
In January - mid-February, a sharp increase in the volume of oil transshipment "board-to-board" (Ship to Ship) near Ceuta and Melilla was also reported. In this scheme, cargoes are either combined on the VLCC into larger batches, or moved from ice-class tankers to conventional ones - mainly Aframax (the same was recorded off the southwestern coast of Greece - near the port of Kalamata).
For example, VLCC Lauren II completed the transshipment of three oil shipments of 100 tons each in Ceuta, and Sao Paulo received two such shipments and headed through the Suez Canal to the western coast of India.
In turn, the VLCC Monica S performed a similar maneuver with the Aframax tanker off the coast of Ceuta and headed for Singapore. But it is not a fact that some of the Russian oil supplies do not remain in Ceuta and Melilla, which are then sent via “intra-Spanish” transportation (that is, to the European region of Spain).
Spanish to Spaniards
The same operations with the Russian oil "sanctions" through the Spanish Ceuta and Melilla are also reported by the Russian specialized media. Among other things, noting that the Russian Federation, in response to EU and US sanctions, began to use the same enclaves of Spain, especially Ceuta, as a base for ship-to-ship oil transshipments “at first, periodically, and from the end of January 2023, regularly.”
Tankers with this Russian product, in accordance with the requirements of the maritime law, "remain mostly 12 miles from the coast, but at times they approach Ceuta and Spanish territorial waters." Of course, without any reaction from the border services.
Ambassador of Morocco to Russia in 2012–2017 Abdelkader Leshekheb explained to one of the authors eight years ago, during the days of the Crimean Spring, why Ceuta, Melilla and other Spanish enclaves are economically beneficial to Morocco. It turns out that this situation has developed, one might say, for objective reasons - specifically, in view of the Spanish-Moroccan and international cargo transit from Africa to Spain and in the opposite direction.
For our part, we note that in addition, through Ceuta or Melilla, it is planned to lay a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Europe. Again, for the sake of getting rid of or reducing supplies from Russia. Therefore, according to the ex-ambassador, Rabat does not plan to hurry with the decolonization of these enclaves...
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