Sweeping U.S. sanctions on Russia's oil industry will make it more expensive for Moscow to sell its oil and complicate sea-borne crude exports due to restrictions on tankers, analysts and traders said on Monday.

Kpler estimates that 117 of the targeted vessels are crude oil tankers, with 102 transporting Russian crude to China and/or India at least once in 2024

The White House, now unconcerned about the effect on gas prices and inflation, blacklisted two of Russia’s biggest oil producers and nearly 200 tanker ships.

Chinese and Indian refiners will source more oil from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, boosting prices and freight costs.

India intends to abandon oil tankers that have been sanctioned by the United States because of their role in transporting goods for Russia, which is another example of the impact of Washington's measures on the global oil market.

Three tankers carrying more than 2 million barrels of Russian oil are floating in the waters off the coast of east China and cannot be unloaded after the United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's largest oil companies on Friday,

Russia has emerged as the top supplier of oil to India in the past three years as it offered crude at discounted prices after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

India will not allow tankers carrying Russian oil subject to American sanctions to enter its ports, Bloomberg reported. This represents a significant setback for Vladimir Putin's strategy. The Indian market became one of the key ones for Russia after the EU decided to abandon Russian raw materials following the invasion of Ukraine.

Indian refiners have reportedly stopped dealing with tankers and entities that have been sanctioned by the US. However, the country does not expect any disruption to Russian oil imports during a two-month wind-down period,

India's oil import strategy is set for a major overhaul as the latest US sanctions on Russian producers and vessels threaten to disrupt supply lines. With nearly 36% of India's total oil imports coming from Russia last year,