The week of 1 to 7 May 2023, Urals crude prices dropped below the price cap level of USD 60. The East Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) and Sokol prices, mainly applying to Chinese and Japanese purchases, fell to USD 63–70 but remained above the price cap level.
The EU was in the third place as an importer of Russian fossil fuels, with China, India the top two, Turkey and United Arab Emirates top fourth and fifth. This illustrates the impact of European sanctions on Russian fossil fuel flows.
China imported crude oil, oil products & chemicals, coal, pipeline gas and LNG. India imported crude oil, oil products & chemicals and coal. The EU imported pipeline crude oil and gas, LNG and oil products&chemicals. Turkey imported oil products & chemicals, crude oil, pipeline gas and coal. UAE imported oil products & chemicals and crude oil.
Two of the top five ports importing Russian fossil fuels were in India, two in China and one in Turkey. Crude oil and oil products & chemicals were the imported commodities.
The top EU countries importing Russian fossil fuels were Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, Malta and Belgium.
Russian crude revenues continue on an upward trend, while those from oil products & chemicals are going down.
The share of tankers covered by the price cap in crude oil shipments out of Russia stayed around 55%. For oil products & chemicals, the coverage of the price cap coalition is around 65%. For crude oil, the coverage is rather stable for shipments departing from Russia’s Baltic, Black sea and Pacific ports. For oil products & chemicals the coverage is plateauing after a fall in April across ports.
The amount of crude on water is dropping, as is the amount of oil products on water, signalling that Russian exporters are having an easier time finding buyers. The amount of LNG on water continues to build, signalling an ongoing glut.
Shipments in the last week
The weekly update of Russian fossil fuel exports was prepared by Meri Pukarinen, Europe-Russia Policy Officer, CREA; and Jan Lietava, Data Scientist/Engineer, CREA.
| Note on methodology: From 2023‑04‑03, our weekly snapshot values are no longer seasonally corrected, which may lead to some disparities between the preceding and following reports. We have also adjusted our time frame to show totals since the start of 2023 rather than the start of the invasion. Dates featured are the date the arrival of the shipment was captured by our algorithm. 80% of arrivals for shipments are found within 4 days of the arrival portcall in the specific port. For our oil products and chemicals commodity group, please note this contains a wider range of items than just those specified in the current sanctions, as of 2022‑02‑05. More information at: https://energyandcleanair.org/ |