“Lastly using welded together calm water ships during high waves to haul fuel oil is what one does when everything is going well”
Ghost ships.
Yup and that kind of cuts into profits
50-60 year old ships are such a good idea😎
Ghost ships and what happened with those two ships breaking a welds are two different things.
The ships that broke up and sank were ships that were modified, larger ships with mid section removed and then bow and stern welded back together. They were meant for calm water transport like rivers, but were sent out into rough waters.
I imagine they were used because Russia is out of the appropriate ships to use.
Ghost ship fleet are possibly sea worthy ships though I imagine many are pretty iffy used by Russia to break sanctions.
Regardless I would imagine as well that there is a premium price to haul the oil therefore cutting into the profit of those ships even if price of crude they are hauling breaks price per barrel sanctions.
The real rub is Russia is not producing and exporting refined crude very much if at all and that causes several problems
First that means they have to export more crude to keep oil flowing. If oil stops flowing esp in cold weather there are severe consequences to the pipeline infrastructure, likewise one cannot just start and stop wells without issues as well.
Second, selling of refined oil products is where the real profit is, and besides domestic needs being reduced by attacks on refineries, the drop in exports means drop in revenue for Kremlin.
Add the loss in NG exports and Kremlin revenue is hampered
None of this changes the fact that Russia has huge reserves, but if you can’t transport it and sell it at a profit then those reserves don’t help much right now. If all of this were to end today there will be a hefty price tag and time delay to be where they were before putin started this war