The delivery of 2 million barrels of crude oil, which arrived on the supertanker Astro Lupus, was organised by Russia's second largest oil company, Lukos.

The shipment comes on the back of an "energy dialogue" between US President George.W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place in Moscow earlier this year and where the two promised to work together to "reduce volatility and enhance predictability" in world oil markets.

Industry observers said at the time that the "energy dialogue" was a none too subtle attempt to undermine the dominance of the OPEC cartel, upon which the US is heavily dependent upon for its import needs.

Thanks to a recovery in production over the past three years, Russia has rocketed to third place in the world oil production, with exports narrowly behind those of Saudi Arabia.