Russian crude oil exports to the EU via Ukraine fell by 15% last year from a year earlier, sources familiar with Russia’s energy ministry data told local newspaper Vedomosti on Friday.
While the EU banned imports of seaborne Russian crude in 2022 as part of the Western campaign to stifle Putin’s oil revenues, pipeline crude deliveries from Russia to Europe were exempted from the embargo as several landlocked central European countries didn’t have other ways to source crude.
Russian crude to Europe is being delivered via the Druzhba pipeline. This Soviet-era pipeline is a key artery of oil supply from Russia to Europe. Druzhba has two branches – a northern route via Belarus that supplied Belarus, Poland, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania, and a southern route passing through Ukraine and sending oil to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
The southern Druzhba route via Ukraine saw total Russian oil flows to the EU member states decline by 15% to 11.5 million tons last year, according to Vedomosti’s sources. This equals about 230,300 barrels per day (bpd).
Moscow classified oil production and export data after the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions and embargoes that the West imposed on Russia in efforts to reduce Putin’s oil revenues.
Last year, Hungary remained the largest buyer of Russian pipeline crude in Europe, accounting for 42% of all deliveries. Russian crude supply to Hungary remained flat at 4.8 million tons in 2024, while deliveries to Slovakia fell by 13% to 4 million tons, and supply to the Czech Republic declined 1.5 times to 2.7 million tons, Vedomosti’s sources said.
Total Russian crude oil exports, including overseas shipments and pipeline deliveries, fell by 2.2% in 2024 from a year earlier, Russian business daily Kommersant reported last week, citing a source with knowledge of Russia’s oil export data.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
