Russia: diesel exports collapse for internal reasons
Russian seaborne gasoil and diesel exports fell 21% in May from April levels to 3.1 million tonnes as refinery maintenance and rising domestic demand reduced available volumes for export, according to new data from Refinitiv Eikon on Friday.
Russia had about 5 million tons of idle refining capacity in May, up from plans of 4.5 million tons, as several refineries extended their scheduled maintenance.
Cargoes to all reported destinations were down, with most of the 3.1 million tonnes going to Turkey and Brazil, while Africa received 500,000 tonnes. About 200,000 tons of diesel loaded by Russia in May have no confirmed destination, according to Reuters. 325,000 tonnes were destined for STS cargo near Kalamata with no declared destination – operators told Reuters they were likely bound for Asia or the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, traditional US allies in the Middle East, do not shy away from importing, stockpiling, trading or re-exporting Russian fuels, despite American efforts to get them to participate in a crackdown on Russian attempts to evade Western sanctions on its oil.
Diesel stockpiles in Asia have surged since the EU's ban on diesel imports that took effect on February 5, and Asian refiners are now forced to compete with Russia for a slice of the African diesel pie.
Diesel inventories at the Singapore hub reached their highest level in more than a year in March, according to Reuters estimates. A decline is expected as H2 demand recovers.
Meanwhile, Europe continues to import more diesel from the Middle East and Asia to compensate for the loss of Russian barrels, of which it was importing around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the Feb. 5 embargo went into effect. Probably a part of this diesel is Russian mixed with local productions.
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The article Russia: diesel exports collapse for internal reasons comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/russia-crolla-lexport-di-gasolio-per-motivi-interni/ on Sat, 03 Jun 2023 06:00:01 +0000.