Russia buys oil tankers to replace European vessels - senator

MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - Russia has acquired oil tankers in order to avoid issues with foreign ship owners that will now be able to transport Russian oil only if they check whether the oil has been sold in excess of the price cap set by the European Union and G7 countries.

"For these purposes, sometimes directly, sometimes through intermediaries, we have bought tankers of which we did not have enough, because the biggest issue arose with tankers, which were usually provided by Greece, Cyprus, or other European countries," Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the international committee of the Federation Council, said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"We have bought tankers, though used ones and not new ones, although they are quite suitable. As the experts say, the tankers should recoup the cost within six months; very quickly given the volumes of oil that Russia could transport using the tankers," Dzhabarov added.

As of December 5, the EU and the G7 countries of the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan have banned their respective companies from providing services to ship Russian oil by sea, as well as from providing insurance, brokerage services and financing of operations. The exception is when the fuel has been sold at a price that does not exceed the price cap. Beginning on February 5, 2023, a similar requirement comes into force on Russian petroleum products.

Russia categorically rejects the implementation of the price cap on its oil and petroleum products.

Greece, Cyprus and Malta are the major European ship owners.