Oil prices fell on Tuesday a day after hitting four-month highs as the market focused on the impact of new U.S. sanctions on Russian oil exports to key buyers India and China. Brent futures were down 36 cents,

Oil-freight derivatives trading surged to the highest in at least a decade as the Biden administration’s sanctions on Russia continued to propel supertanker rates higher.

The latest sanctions package would certainly have an impact on India’s oil imports, given Russia is currently the biggest crude oil source market for India. How it would really pan out would be contingent upon various variables.

A fresh wave of U.S. sanctions against Russia’s oil industry threatened to disrupt global supplies, sending crude prices to their highest in more than four months.

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.

The Group of Seven democracies has sought to crimp Russia's oil export earnings that help fund the war against Ukraine. But Western governments and sanctions experts say Moscow has resorted to using a so-called shadow fleet of hundreds of aging tankers of uncertain ownership and safety practices that are dodging sanctions and keeping the oil revenue coming.

Russian seaborne oil exports may decrease in the coming weeks after the United States imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s largest exporters and about 160 tankers in the shadow fleet, Bloomberg reports.

Oil prices paused their rally on Tuesday, but remained near four-month highs, with the market's attention focused on the impact of new U.S. sanctions on Russian oil exports to key buyers India and China.

At least 65 Russian oil tankers have been forced to anchor and suspend shipments following the imposition of the toughest U.S. sanctions yet on Russia’s oil and gas sector. The sanctions were announced on January 10,