OREANDA-NEWS   In February, Chinese refineries tripled their use of Russian Far Eastern Sokol crude oil to 168 thousand barrels per day against 53 thousand in December 2023. Bloomberg writes about this.

According to journalists who provide statistics, such a sharp increase was provided mainly by private refiners who were interested in a discount of about 50 cents per barrel to the benchmark ICE Brent brand.

India, as previously reported by Reuters, has also resumed purchases of Russian oil, planning to pay for it in dirhams of the UAE. After a two-month pause, the country receives about 119 thousand barrels per day.

According to Western media, tankers with Russian oil began to stand idle without unloading a few miles off the coast of India before the new year, and in January the problems continued. Almost 15 million barrels of oil destined for delivery to the country are now parked in tankers off the coasts of Malaysia and South Korea, the agency said in today's material.