PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Russian oil tanker that had been heading to the Port of Philadelphia has turned around and is now bound for France.
The Beijing Spirit, chartered by Litasco SA, the trading arm of Lukoil, and carrying about 1 million barrels of oil, was originally signaling to head to Philadelphia. That is not happening anymore. Real-time tracking shows that it is now heading to a port in France and is expected to get there in four or five days.
Vortexa, an energy analytics firm, said this is the first U.S.-bound tanker carrying Russian crude oil to change destinations since the invasion of Ukraine began two weeks ago.
This is a direct result of the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports in effect since President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday. Ahead of that announcement, many companies were already avoiding Russian oil.
The U.S. gets only about 3% of its oil from Russia, but as energy analyst Dan Dicker says, the American ban is no small move.
“That has an enormous impact on the global oil markets,” he said. “And if they have an impact on the global oil markets, they're going to have an impact on gas prices here at home.”
The average price per gallon in the Philadelphia area on Wednesday morning was $4.45, according to AAA. That is up a nickel since Tuesday — a rise of 61 cents in a single week.
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