The Dutch energy and commodities trading company will also not enter into any new Russian crude and product transactions, the source said.
Vitol declined to comment beyond confirming the accuracy of an article published by Bloomberg, which reported the news earlier.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have all announced bans on Russian oil.
As Russian oil has become toxic for many buyers, its benchmark Urals crude has traded at an ever wider discount on the world market. It’s now worth $34 a barrel less than Brent crude.
The International Energy Agency estimated on Wednesday that supplies of Russian oil will drop by 1.5 million barrels a day in April, and could fall by as much as 3 million a day from May as buyers turn away.
“While some buyers, most notably in Asia, increased purchases of sharply discounted Russian barrels, traditional customers are cutting back,” the agency said. “For now, there are no signs of increased volumes going to China.”
That’s more than Russia’s daily exports of crude oil, which the IEA estimated at about 4.7 million barrels in 2021. Of that, about 2.4 million barrels per day went to Europe.
The cumulative impact of this widening embargo could be higher oil prices globally as buyers scramble to replace supplies. Russia is the world’s second-largest crude oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia, and accounted for 14% of global supply last year, according to the IEA.
— Chris Liakos contributed to this article.
