Russia Fills Tankers With Stranded Crude After US Bans Key Ships

Russia is resorting to floating storage to keep a key oil grade flowing from a platform off the north Pacific island of Sakhalin, after sweeping US sanctions targeted ice-resistant tankers that delivered the cargoes to China.

Some Chinese ports have started to shun blacklisted ships, leaving the specialized shuttle vessels that hauled Sokol crude from the Sakhalin 1 project idling with their tanks full. But Russia needs to keep those ships loading fresh cargoes to avoid curtailing production at the platform, and the solution has been to transfer the oil into other ships.

The struggle shows how Washington’s strongest yet ...