Page 12 - RusRPTApr23

“The shipping data shows that Europe's imports of Russian fuels slumped sharply in February. So-called "grey" market trade continues, however, albeit at reduced rates, with tankers discharging Russian fuels at common offshore ship-to-ship transfer locations off Greece, Gibraltar, Malta, and Ceuta,” S&P said.
The Western efforts to curb Moscow's oil revenues means EU countries have been importing oil from other sources. This decline in exports comes as new buyers in Africa fail to absorb Russian fuels displaced from Europe.
“To help plug the gap in Europe, regional refiners and fuel retailers continue to lean on alternative diesel supplies from the Middle East, Turkey and the US, while dipping into stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining hub built up ahead of the embargo,” S&P said.
The data shows that Europe's flows of Russian fuel have plunged from around 1.5mn b/d in December to less than 500,000 b/d in February. Meanwhile, African buyers in Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Ghana, and Egypt have doubled their Russian fuel imports to around 440,000 b/d.
As a result, Russia's share of European oil product imports has fallen to just 7.5% in February, down from pre-war levels of 39%, according to the data.
Elsewhere, Turkey, the UAE, and China have become Russia's new biggest fuel buyers, with 35% of all Russian oil products now headed to those countries. China’s import of Russian oil continues to rise, but those to India have stagnated for the last few months.
Seaborne exports hold up well
Despite the slump in Russian oil product exports in February, the levels seen are largely in line with product exports during mid-2022 before markets began stockpiling discounted Russian fuels ahead of the expected new Western
12 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com