Russian fuel exports drop by 20% in February
Russian oil product exports dropped by 20 percent last month, hitting the lowest level since May last year, BNE IntelliNews reported, citing data from S&P Global.
The February average was also 24% lower than the average pre-war level of oil product exports.
The data follows an earlier report that crude oil exports from Russia had remained relatively stable despite the pileup of sanctions, including an embargo on both oil and oil products in the European Union.
According to cargo tracking data from Kpler, Russian oil and fuel exports last month averaged 7.32 million barrels daily, almost unchanged from December before the fuel embargo kicked in.
What’s more, according to fresh research from the Institute of International Finance, Columbia University, and the University of California, Russia has been selling its crude oil at higher prices than the cap of $60 per barrel that the G7 in partnership with the EU imposed on those exports last year.
The average selling price for Russian crude, according to the researchers, has been $74 per barrel for the four weeks following the imposition of the crude oil export embargo by the EU on December 5.
Meanwhile, Russia has said it would reduce oil production by half a million barrels daily this month in response to sanctions, a move that may affect the level of its oil and fuel exports.
According to JP Morgan, Russian fuel exports could slip by 300,000 bpd as a result of the EU embargo but the bank added Russia could maintain production of crude oil at pre-war levels. It would be harder, however, to return to pre-pandemic levels of production, JP Morgan also said.
Pre-war production stood at 10.8 million bpd, while production rates before the pandemic averaged 11.3 million bpd, according to the bank.
