A tanker loaded with one million barrels of Russian oil set sail from Murmansk this month, headed for Philadelphia. Then, in the middle of the Atlantic, it did an abrupt U-turn.
The ship, Beijing Spirit, had apparently lost the buyer for its oil. It removed “Philadelphia” as its listed destination, according to the global maritime data provider MarineTraffic, and listed its new destination as “For Orders”, which indicates that the oil on board is for sale.
The tanker then veered back towards Europe before spending several days bouncing round the Mediterranean, “presumably hoping to offload in more ‘friendly’ territory”, said John van Schaik, an oil-industry expert at the energy information company Energy Intelligence.
