Russian fuel exports fall in 2024 as drone attacks, bans add to sanctions pressure
- Ukrainian drone attacks damage refineries
- Russian ban on gasoline exports also affected flows
- Rising interest rates also prompted export cuts
Russian seaborne oil product exports fell by almost 10% in 2024 after Ukrainian drone attacks damaged major refineries and as higher funding costs and a government gasoline export ban added to pressure from Western sanctions, industry sources said.
Russia, one of the world's largest oil and fuel exporters alongside Saudi Arabia and the U.S., has been trying to access new markets in Asia and South America since the West imposed sanctions over Moscow's military move on Ukraine in 2022.
Lower fuel exports mean Russia's oil firms have to boost exports of crude to maintain revenues, but such options are limited to just India, China and Turkey, which still buy Russian crude despite sanctions and have their own big refineries.
Total Russian exports of all fuels including fuel oil, diesel, naphtha and jet kerosene stood at 113.7 MM tonnes (t) last year, down 9.1% from 2023, two market sources told Reuters, citing export data.
The 2024 export figure would amount to approximately 2.3 MMbpd if the 7.33 crude oil conversion ratio of ton-to-barrel is used. The exact breakdown of products - all of which use a different conversion ratio - was not known.
Russia's overall oil processing fell to around 267 MMt (5.4 MMbpd) in 2024, its lowest level since 2012, due to unplanned outages and weaker refining margins, Reuters calculations based on data from market sources showed.
Drone attacks. Ukraine attacked several Russian refineries and fuel facilities, including Lukoil's Volgograd refinery, Gazprom Neft's Omsk oil refinery in western Siberia, the Slavyansk and Novoshakhtinsk refineries and Rosneft's Black Sea oil refinery in Tuapse.
The refineries also came under pressure due to falling fuel prices, rising interest rates and Russia's ban on gasoline exports, market sources said.
Total oil product exports via the Baltic ports of Primorsk, Vysotsk, St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga fell by 9% in 2024 from the previous year to 61.96 MMt, data showed.
Fuel exports via Russia's Black Sea and Azov Sea ports fell to 42.75 MMt, down 10% from 2023.
Exports via the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse fell by a third to 9.1 MMt due to outages after drone attacks, suspended processing and decreased refining at Rosneft's refinery, market sources told Reuters.
Meanwhile, exports through the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk rose 4% to 19 MMt, data showed.
Oil product export supplies from Russia's Arctic ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk fell to 1.01 MMt, down 14%, while fuel export loadings at Far East ports fell 3% from 2023 to 7.97 MMt.
Russia's seaborne oil product exports rose 10.8% month on month in December to 10.37 MMt, including 4.17 MMt loaded via Russia's Black Sea and Azov Sea ports, 5.49 MMt through Baltic Sea ports and 637,100 t via Russia`s Far East ports, data from sources and Reuters calculations showed.
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