Russia’s Crude Exports Rising Despite Maintenance at Baltic Port

Russian crude oil shipments continued to increase on a four-week average basis, despite maintenance work that reduced flows out of the port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea last week, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed on Tuesday.    

Russian crude oil exports from its ports averaged around 3.28 million barrels per day (bpd) in the four weeks to December 17—an increase of about 80,000 bpd compared to the four-week average to December 10, according to the data reported by Bloomberg’s Julian Lee.

In the four weeks to December 10, Russia’s crude oil shipments jumped after storms in the Black Sea that had disrupted loadings in November subsided.

Despite a four-day halt to Primorsk loadings in the week to December 17, Russian crude oil shipments were higher by 80,000 bpd compared to the four-week average to the week ending on December 10.

At the end of last week, a storm and planned maintenance at Primorsk forced Russia to suspend on Friday around two-thirds of the shipments of its flagship crude grade Urals from its Baltic and Black Sea ports.

Russia has pledged to reduce its oil exports by 300,000 bpd until the end of 2023, in a show of solidarity with its OPEC+ partner Saudi Arabia, which is voluntarily reducing its oil production by 1 million bpd until 2023.

At the latest OPEC+ meeting, Russia said it would deepen the export cut to 500,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2024, with May and June of 2023 being the reference export levels for the cut, which will consist of 300,000 bpd of crude and 200,000 bpd of refined products.

Russia has always been evasive about its compliance with the OPEC+ agreement, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has classified its oil production and export data, saying it would not provide detailed information about its oil sector which could be used by the West to track down and clamp down on Russia’s oil exports, or oil revenues.

Earlier this month, reports emerged that Russia has promised oil-flow tracking companies and price reporting agencies to provide data about its production, inventories, and fuel output after OPEC+ asked Moscow for more transparency in tracking its compliance with the cuts.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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