Russia shipped the least crude in over a month, with overseas flows dropping to 3.55 million barrels daily in the four weeks through Oct. 25. Despite a strong rebound in weekly shipments from the key Baltic port Primorsk, four-week totals fell by 30,000 barrels a day to the lowest in five weeks. In the week to Oct. 25, 37 tankers loaded 26.93 million barrels, the highest in a month, driven by the jump in shipments from the country's Baltic ports.
A recent lull in attacks on Russian refineries has allowed Moscow to boost processing rates, likely diverting crude that would otherwise have been exported. Buyers in India may be turning away from Russian barrels amid sky-high shipping costs and cheaper alternatives from the Persian Gulf. On a weekly basis, the value of exports jumped by about $430 million to a wartime high of $2.76 billion, with lower Urals prices more than offset by the jump in shipments and an eighth straight weekly increase in ESPO values.
China and India remain the biggest buyers of Russian crude by a considerable margin. The small drop in total flows and lower prices for Russia's key Urals crude were offset by higher prices for the Pacific ESPO grade. Since the start of September, Moscow has diverted all shipments of Kazakh crude through the Black Sea port, freeing up more capacity for its own barrels at Ust-Luga on the Baltic.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing