The black market for Russian and Iranian oil is in trouble

Japan Times ^ | 2/17/26 | Javier Blas

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Oil smuggling has been so enormously profitable that no matter how many obstacles Washington and Brussels put up, the barrels kept flowing. With a daily turnover of $1 billion, the black market has been just too attractive. For the first time, however, I see cracks in the illicit business. Millions of barrels of unsold Iranian and Russian crude are accumulating in storage. The reason isn’t just more U.S. and European sanctions and political pressure. Sure, they’ve helped. But the key factor is more mundane: The buyers of sanctioned crude oil have plenty of alternative aboveboard barrels available — at reasonable prices. Playing by the rules carries a smaller cost.

Buyers of sanctioned oil, notably India and Turkey, have been switching with ease over the last 60 days to unsanctioned barrels. For now, this means any glut of unsold crude is being concentrated in the shadows of the black market, away from the limelight of the world’s top oil-price benchmarks: Brent, West Texas Intermediate and Dubai.

If anything, the switch has made the mainstream oil market tighter, putting a floor under prices. Add the risk of conflict in the Middle East, and the cost of a barrel has gone up 10% over the last two months. At $63 or so for WTI, the price is still alluring enough to make buying illicit stuff not worth the bother.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; Iran; Russia
KEYWORDS: blackmarketoil; californiawillbuy; callsparklebeachken; iran; iranianoil; russia; russianoil; worldtrade

[Roman_War_Criminal]

[Tell It Right]

[montag813]

Well, send ‘em t0 the Gulf of America to be refined! I am wistful for 78 cent gas like when I was little.

[PGR88]

In January, India imported about 1.3 million barrels a day of Russian oil, down about 35% from the middle of last year. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump saying New Delhi had agreed to completely stop buying Russian crude, I don’t believe it will do so in the short-term.

And as refiners in California shut-down due to woke-green leftist madness, and California imports by sea ever-more diesel and gasoline, where does that product come from?

India of course, courtesy of Russian crude oil

[hinckley buzzard]

California has begun to buy Texas oil by way of the Bahamas so they can use foreign hulls and avoid the Jones Act.

[meatloaf]

As part of the tariff negotiations India agrred to stop buying Russian oil.