Russia: sharp increase in oil exports in March

Russian exports of crude oil and refined products rose in March, hitting their highest level since April 2020, while fuel exports surged, bringing $1 billion more to Putin's oil revenues last month than in February. the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.

Russian exports of crude oil and products rose by 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March to 8.1 million bpd, the highest levels of oil exports from Russia in three years, the IEA said in its report. on the oil market, closely followed today.
Most of the growth in export volumes is due to an increase in shipments of manufactured products, which have returned to levels last seen before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

According to the IEA, Russia's fuel exports increased by 450,000 bpd to 3.1 million bpd.

Revenues from oil exports are estimated to have increased by $1 billion from February levels, reaching $12.7 billion in March. However, revenues are still 43% lower than a year ago, due to lower international prices and the wide discounts at which Russian oil trades against international benchmarks.

Russia said it would cut oil production by 500,000 bpd through the end of the year. This week, Russia said it cut production by 700,000 bpd in March.

Tanker tracking firms and analysts said Russia appears to have managed to divert many of its crude and fuel exports from the EU to Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Most of Russia's crude is now destined for China and India, while Africa and Latin America have become major outlets for Russia's gasoline and diesel exports.

So far, tanker tracking suggests that Russia has been relatively successful in placing most of its fuels in markets other than Europe, even as Moscow has been forced to reroute cargoes to distant markets to maintain export volumes. Gibson Shipbrokers said in a market report a month after the EU embargo on Russian fuels went into effect on Feb. 5.

“However, a lot depends on Russia's export strategy and its ability to maintain refining cycles, as well as the willingness of Western governments to allow rebranding and re-export of Russian products abroad,” Gibson noted.

So if the West thinks of suffocating Moscow financially, it better change its strategy. The hunger for energy, oil and derivatives is such that Russia's position cannot be touched. There will always be someone willing to take a risk and import, one way or another, from Russia.

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The article Russia: strong increase in oil exports in March comes from Scenari Economics .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/russia-forte-aumento-delle-esportazioni-petrolifere-a-marzo/ on Sat, 15 Apr 2023 06:00:01 +0000.