Russian oil that usually goes to China is heading to India as competition for cheap crude ramps up

• Oil from Russia's far east is skirting the usual buyers in China and heading to India, according to Bloomberg.
• Four cargoes carrying Russian ESPO oil are on the way to the east coast of India, up from three last month.

Crude from Russia's far east is heading to India even though typically those barrels are favored by Chinese buyers, according to a Bloomberg report.

Four cargoes carrying Russian ESPO oil are en route for the east coast of India, where an Indian Oil Corp refinery is located. That is up from three vessels last month, and just one in April, a Vortexa analyst told Bloomberg.

These vessels can typically reach China in about five days, though the trade is usually not called upon by Indian buyers due to the much longer distance from the Russian loading port in Kozmino.

Additionally, per the report, ESPO crude shipments are transported in vessels that ferry smaller volumes.

The prices are likely cheaper than other grades from the Persian Gulf and West Africa, however, which likely sparked an uptick in purchases, traders told Bloomberg.

At the same time, tankers that carried sanctioned Iranian oil are now taking Russian crude to Asia, according to Vortexa. The research firm added that the number of ship-to-ship transfers involving vessels with their signals turned off is growing.

Meanwhile, European cargoes carrying Russian oil have been traveling huge distances and making transfers at sea to deliver crude ahead of new European Union sanctions which set in December 5, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.

As Europe prepares to halt deliveries of the fuel, Greek tanker owners have ramped up activity. While they account for about a third of the global fleet, they moved about half of Russian crude volumes over May and June.