Thursday, March 28

Weekly Russian Oil Exports have Fallen by More Than A Quarter

Russia’s oil exports fell by more than a quarter from March 17 to 23 compared to the previous week. This is evident from industry data that Bloomberg news agency has seen. However, the industry data itself does not explain the decline.

 

However, the slump came as Russia faced a growing movement among its usual clients to find alternatives to Russian oil due to its invasion of Ukraine.

The average daily exports of Russia amounted to 495.3 thousand tons in the period. That is 26.4 percent less than the week before. The amount corresponds to an average supply of about 3.63 million barrels per day. On the other hand, Russia’s total oil production over the same period showed only a small decline of 0.3 percent from the previous week. The country produced an average of more than 11.08 million barrels per day.

Only a handful of countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have imposed explicit embargoes on Russian oil imports. Yet many of the country’s traditional customers have imposed a buyer’s strike on Russian oil in response to the war in Ukraine. Major oil companies such as Shell and TotalEnergies have also said they will phase out the purchases of crude oil and fuels from Russia.

A separate report from the European organization Transport & Environment shows that after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, European oil companies BP, Shell and TotalEnergies bought $100 billion worth of oil from Russia between 2015 and 2021.

However, Russia can still sell its crude because of the high discounts. Russians aim to keep production stable even amid unprecedented economic sanctions, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last week.

The country also plans to ramp up supplies of Ural oil in April. For example, state-owned pipeline company Transneft PJSC is conducting an export program next month that will see 2.26 million barrels per day loaded onto oil tankers in three western ports. That would be the highest number since June 2019.

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