The week of 20 to 26 February 2023, Russia’s crude oil exports volumes and revenues continued their fall. Volumes shrank steeply after the start of EU crude oil import ban on December 5, but rebounded towards the end of January. However, they have been falling for several weeks now. The volume and value of shipments of oil products and chemicals continued to slide.
China continued as the largest importer of Russian fossil fuels last week. The other importers in the top five were the EU, Turkey, India and South Korea.
China’s imports consisted of crude oil, coal and pipeline gas. The EU imported pipeline oil and gas and LNG. Turkey imported crude oil, pipeline gas and coal, and India and South Korea crude oil and coal.
Two of the top five ports importing Russian fossil fuels were in Asia, two in Turkey and one in Europe, with crude oil dominating as the imported commodity.
The top five EU importer countries last week were Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic.
The share of tankers covered by the price cap in crude oil shipments out of Russia is just above 60%. For oil products&chemicals, the coverage of the price cap coalition was close to 80%. The shares of ownership and insurance of vessels carrying Russian fossil fuels within the price cap coalition are much higher for shipments departing from Russia’s Arctic, Baltic and Black sea ports, but much lower for shipments departing from Pacific ports.
The amount of oil-on-water for crude oil continued to decrease, while the amount oil products on water was rather stable. The LNG glut seems to be picking up again.
Urals crude prices were just above USD 50 per barrel, remaining below the price cap level of USD 60. However, the East Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) price, mainly applying to Chinese purchases, has remained above the price cap at USD 67-70.
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: 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/ |