OREANDA-NEWS  Russia is still experiencing difficulties with the sale of its premium Sokol oil. The number of tankers with shipments of this brand has grown to 17, and two more are anchored in South Korea, where raw materials are usually reloaded, and there are no signs that they will go to customers in the near future, Bloomberg writes.

Problems began to arise after the United States strengthened control over compliance with the price ceiling set at $ 60 per barrel. It does not depend on the grade of oil, however, Sokol, as a higher-quality raw material, was sold more expensive than the reference Urals.

Recently, ships carrying Sokol have been subject to American sanctions, among other things, which became a signal for buyers of this brand from India.

A week ago, Indian Oil and Gas Minister Hardeep Puri, answering the question why tankers with Russian oil are standing a few miles from the coast, admitted that this is a matter of price restrictions and excessive attention to some tankers.

In the same agency's material, it is reported that offshore oil exports from Russia over the past week fell to a minimum of 3.02 million barrels per day since the beginning of December. One of the reasons for this was a fire in the port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, where it is located next to the shipping terminal.