- A Russian oil ship has been floating 1,600 miles off the shores of India for 10 days.
- Bloomberg reports the ship was unable to dock and is awaiting instructions from the Indian government.
A Russian oil ship has been drifting 1,600 miles off the coasts of India as the nation mulls whether or not to let the ship dock.
The NS Century oil tanker was on track to dock in India after completing its journey from South Korea, but has now been adrift for 10 days, Bloomberg reported on Monday. That's because Indian officials are struggling with the decision over whether or not to let the tanker unload its cargo, with instructions still yet to be sent from the Indian government, India's Directorate Generale of Shipping said.
The ship was on track to land at India's Vadinar port, where the Indian Oil Corp has a facility and Nayara Energy, the Indo-Russian energy giant, has a refinery. But the NS Century's cargo doesn't belong to Nayara's refinery, a Nayara spokesperson told Bloomberg on Monday.
Nayara and Indian Oil Corp. did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment on the ship or its cargo.
That debate over whether or not the ship can dock comes shortly after the West has moved to tighten restrictions on Russian oil, with the US sanctioning five shipping vessels, including the NS Century, for trading Russian oil above the G7's $60 price cap last week.
The cap is part of an attempt to curb Moscow's energy revenue as Russia's invasion of Ukraine drags on, an issue India has chosen to stay strategically neutral on since the war began in 2022, though the country was among Russia's top oil customers last year, Kpler data shows.
India is under pressure to remain on good terms with the US, and Russian oil shipments sent to India have recently encountered a few hiccups as India grows uneasy of paying for crude using China's yuan. As of October, the nation had at least seven oil shipments from Russia that had not been paid, Reuters originally reported.