A rough oil tanker that web bid flit from Primorsk in Russia for Rizhao port in China has modified direction in Southeast Asia and is now heading against the Fresh Mangalore port with 1.1 lakh tonnes (7.7 lakh barrels) of Urals coarse, confirmed ship-tracking records. The ship is predicted to attain Mangaluru on March 20.
In step with marinetraffic.com, Aqua Titan, a Cameroon-registered tanker, left the Russian port on January 18. It anchored at Port Suez and departed on February 21, confirmed vesselfinder.com.
Sources in the Fresh Mangalore Port Authority (NMPA) told The Hindu that Aqua Titan’s arrival would enhance the boldness of the refiner, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., (MRPL). They acknowledged with one tanker already discharging Russian Urals coarse at the Single Level Mooring (SPM) on Wednesday, NMPA would receive now no longer lower than three extra tankers by month-conclude.
Ships originating from Primorsk customarily take the route via Suez Canal to attain India’s west flee on the Arabian Sea. But ship-tracking internet region Equasis acknowledged the Aqua Titan turned into viewed in North Europe and West Europe in January, South Asia in February, Southeast Asia and Singapore Strait in March, indicating that it circumvented India after which made a U-flip in Southeast Asia to head to India.
In overall, chartered ships assemble now no longer exchange direction halfway. But the Aqua Titan is a sanctioned vessel. “That is a extremely sanctioned immediate owned by the Russian executive. The Aqua Titan will seemingly be sanctioned so the transparency is even worse. Essentially, the dismal immediate vessels are managed by the Russian articulate in the conclude,” acknowledged Erik Grundt, senior analyst, Rystad Energy, an energy intelligence company based utterly in Norway.
Reports acknowledged the vessel made a U-flip in mid-March after the U.S. acknowledged India could well well well import Russian coarse for 30 days.
The Aqua Titan, formerly Lang Ya, turned into sanctioned by the U.K., Australia, Canada, EU and Ukraine. Final June, the ship turned into amongst 60 ships sanctioned by the Australian executive for carrying Russian coarse oil. Again then, the Australian executive had acknowledged that these ships operate “underneath false practices, in conjunction with flag-hopping, disabling tracking methods”.
Saudi coarse on the fashion
With the closure of Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabian coarse is now being diverted during the Yanbu Port that homes King Fahd Industrial Port on the Red Sea, NMPA sources acknowledged. Yanbu, located on the Western Wing of Saudi Arabia, has the East-West Petroline Terminal. Though moderately longer, the route avoids the volatile Strait of Hormuz thereby offering stable passage to tankers.
While one oil tanker with 1.36 lakh tonnes of coarse left Yanbu on Tuesday (March 17, 2026), one other turned into being loaded with 2.6 lakh tonnes of coarse for Mangalore. With coarse from two Russian tankers and two from Saudi Arabia, MRPL could well well hold enough stock. The refiner, with an set in skill of refining 18.2 million tonnes of coarse every year, roughly requires about 1.5 million tonnes coarse a month.
To this level in March, NMPA has handled two tankers at the SPM and three coastal coarse vessels at the predominant port, sources added.
Cargo costs waived off
Ever for the explanation that struggle began in West Asia affecting present of petroleum products to India, the Mangalore port has waived off cargo costs both for coarse and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers, sources acknowledged.
For one lakh tonne coarse, the cargo costs would formula to around ₹34 lakh. Vessel-handling costs, nonetheless, would proceed to be composed. For LPG Tanker Shivalik that turned into presupposed to near at Fresh Mangalore Port with 26,000 tonnes of LPG, the port had promised to waive off ₹50 lakh cargo costs.
Again to Russian coarse
Final August, India turned into slapped 25% tariffs by the U.S. for procuring for Russian coarse oil. In February, after India and U.S. signed the interim exchange agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that “India has committed to live straight away or now no longer straight away importing Russian Federation oil” and revoked the punitive tariffs.
At its peak, India imported nearly 40% of its coarse oil from Russia following the Ukraine war at discounted charges. The fragment turned into 33% in Could presumably also 2025. But India decrease abet on Russian coarse imports that fell fell to 19.3% in January 2026, the bottom since December 2022.
Following the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran and the de factor closure of the Strait of Hormuz, coarse oil costs spiked attributable to shortage. On March 6, the U.S. temporarily equipped India a waiver to aquire Russian coarse again. “The Treasury (Department) agreed to let our allies in India initiate procuring for Russian oil that turned into already on the water,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had told Fox Industry.
