Page 130 - RusRPTJan23

Europe is bringing in diesel cargoes from around the world at close to a record pace ahead of the on shipments from its biggest external supplier in December. In the first 10 days of this month, the UK and European Union imported more than 16mn barrels of diesel-type fuel via ship — a rate that, if continued, would make December’s total the second-highest since at least the start of 2016, according to data provided by Vortexa Ltd. and compiled by Bloomberg. Europe is structurally short of diesel and has long relied on others for imports. With much of December’s arrivals coming from Asia and the Middle East, the shipments provide a glimpse into how the region might get by after EU sanctions banning seaborne deliveries from Russia take hold in February. Close to half of December’s diesel imports so far — about the same ratio as November’s — came from Russian shipping facilities. That means the EU still has a long way to go before it completely weans itself off the country’s fuel. It remains to be seen whether early December’s staggering level of imports will be maintained. Forward-looking data from Vortexa currently puts average arrivals for December 1-15 at about 1.8mn barrels a day.
In January, before the start of the military conflict, deliveries to the EU accounted for 85% of the total volume of Urals sea shipments - 5.16mn tonnes out of 6mn tonnes, and in September - only 24% (1.78mn tonnes out of 7.4mn tonnes), according to Argus Media.
India increased purchases of Urals from zero at the beginning of the year to just over 40% by early autumn, while Turkey increased from less than 5% to 21%. In January-September 2022, India increased its purchases of Russian oil (not only Urals, but also the ESPO mixture transported to the port of Kozmino via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline) by eight times, up to 20.5mn tonnes, follows from Indian customs statistics.
According to Chinese customs, China purchased almost 72mn tonnes of
130 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com