Weekly snapshot ‑ Russian fossil fuels 17 to 23 April 2023

The week of 17 to 23 April 2023, Urals crude prices stayed above the price cap level of USD 60. The East Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) price, mainly applying to Chinese purchases, stayed above USD 70. This adds urgency to strengthening the enforcement of the price caps and lowering the price cap levels – with levels above the price cap, tankers by the price cap coalition ought not to service transporting Russian crude.

The EU was in the third place as an importer of Russian fossil fuels, with China, India the top two, Turkey and Malaysia top fourth and fifth. This illustrates the impact of European sanctions on Russian fossil fuels. 

China imported crude oil, pipeline gas, coal, LNG and oil products & chemicals. India imported crude oil, coal and oil products & chemicals. The EU imported pipeline crude oil and gas, LNG and oil products & chemicals. Turkey imported pipeline gas, oil products & chemicals and crude oil. Malaysia imported crude oil and oil products & chemicals.

Three of the top five ports importing Russian fossil fuels were in India, one in India and one in Malaysia, all importing crude oil.

The top EU countries importing Russian fossil fuels were Hungary, Slovakia, Belgium, Czech Republic and Malta.

Russia’s revenues from crude oil have seen a sharp increase, whereas those from oil products & chemicals have fallen.

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 above 70%. For crude oil, the coverage is increasing for shipments departing from Russia’s Baltic and Black sea ports and on the decline for shipments departing from Pacific ports. For oil products & chemicals the coverage is plateauing or falling across ports.

The amount of crude on water is dropping, while the amount of oil products seems to plateau. The LNG glut continues to build.

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/