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 on Monday, citing a source with knowledge of Russia’s oil export data.
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.
Exports of crude out of Russia declined by 2.2% to 295.12 million tons last year, including transit volumes out of Kazakhstan, according to the data reported by Kommersant.
Russia reduced crude oil supply via the Druzhba pipeline to Slovakia and the Czech Republic and cut seaborne shipments from its ports in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, the data showed.
However, Moscow boosted pipeline crude supply to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline and raised seaborne exports from the Far East port of Kozmino, from where the ESPO crude grade is being shipped to China and India.
The EU has an embargo on Russian crude oil imports by sea, but pipeline deliveries are not banned. Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were exempted from the EU embargo on imports of Russian crude oil by sea that came into effect on December 5, 2022. The EU has exempted pipeline oil flows to landlocked EU member states from the ban.
In light of the latest U.S. sanctions on its oil exports, Russia is said to have been reshuffling tankers to prioritize shipments to China, which has become Moscow’s top crude oil buyer alongside India.
Aframax oil tankers that serviced crude oil exports from Russia’s western ports are now being redirected to the Russian Far East-China route to service the exports of Russia’s ESPO crude, a favorite with Chinese refiners, Bloomberg reported last week, citing shipbroker and ship-tracking data.
The Biden Administration’s farewell sanctions on Russian oil trade were the most aggressive yet and sanctioned dozens of vessels that Russia used to ship the ESPO crude blend from Kozmino to China’s independent refiners.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
