Russia Has Begun To Lose Record Amounts Of Money On Oil Shipments To India

• 13.10.2026, 16:12

Transportation costs are reducing Moscow's profits from high oil prices.

The cost of shipping Russian oil to India has reached an all-time high: delivering each barrel of Urals costs approximately $30 or more. The rise in transportation costs is reducing Russia’s profits from high global oil prices.

Suezmax-class tankers (with a capacity of about 1 million barrels of oil): the cost of a one-way voyage from the Black Sea to India has skyrocketed to $27–30 million (in September, it was about $19 million). Thus, for just one such vessel, Russia’s additional cost due to the freight crisis ranges from $8 million to $11 million per voyage compared to the previous month.

This is money that Russia is losing.

Reuters reports that freight rates from Black Sea and Baltic ports hit new record highs in early October. The agency attributes the price increase to heightened risks for shipping in the Black Sea and a general rise in the cost of maritime oil transportation.

A single voyage by a large tanker from the Black Sea to India now costs up to $30 million, compared to approximately $19 million in September. Thus, the upper estimate of the shipping cost has risen by more than half.

Russia is forced to ship the bulk of its oil from western ports to distant Asian markets—primarily India and China. The long routes make exports more expensive, and rising freight rates further increase costs.

As a result, the high price of oil itself does not translate into a comparable increase in revenue for Russian sellers: more and more money is being spent on delivering the raw material to buyers.