Recent data revealed that the costs of shipping and delivering Russian Urals crude to Asia have decreased significantly, allowing Russia to obtain a greater share of revenues from every barrel of oil sold to China, and India is now its largest buyer.

Data indicate that the cost of shipping one million barrels of Urals oil from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to northern China has decreased from $10.2 million in April to $7.2 million currently, while the cost of the direct impact of sanctions on shipping one million barrels has decreased from $6.8 million to $2.8 million.

This decline is due to several factors, including an increase in the number of tankers transporting Russian oil under the “shadow flag” to avoid sanctionsand redirecting exports to new markets such as India and China.

Argos data shows that the price of a barrel is about $75 at export ports in the Baltic and Black Sea and then increases by about an additional $10 to reach its destination in China and India.

This development indicates that the sanctions imposed on Russia may not achieve one of their main goals, which is to raise the cost of shipping and delivering Russian oil, which disappoints Western decision-makers who sought to pressure Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.