Two supertankers have begun a long and unusual journey to carry crude from Guyana to India as refiners in India look for new sources while they move away from sanctioned Russian oil.

The journey of nearly 11000 miles or 17700 kilometres shows how far Indian refiners are now willing to go to secure non-Russian barrels after the United States tightened restrictions on the discounted Russian oil that India has relied on in recent years.

The Very Large Crude Carriers Cobalt Nova and Olympic Lion left the South American country in the last days of November, each carrying close to 2 million barrels of oil, according to ship tracking data gathered by Bloomberg. Both tankers are expected to reach India in January.

These shipments are the first crude deliveries from Guyana to India since 2021, when two cargoes of 1 million barrels each completed the same route, the tracking data shows.

India had been importing around 1.7 million barrels a day of Russian oil, but fresh United States sanctions last month on Russia’s two biggest exporters, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, have increased the risk for refiners who continue to trade. The concern over buying Russian crude also grew after United States President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on all imports from India to 50 per cent in August.

The Olympic Lion is carrying a cargo of Guyana’s Golden Arrowhead crude to Paradip on the east coast of India, where the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation operates a refinery that can process 300000 barrels a day. The company bought this cargo from ExxonMobil Inc. through a tender in October.

The Cobalt Nova is carrying a mixed load of Liza and Unity Gold grades and is likely to unload in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam, where Hindustan Petroleum Corp manages refineries. The company purchased 1 million barrels of each grade for delivery between late December and early January.