From January 2022 to February 2023, the largest importers of Russian oil were India and China, and oil products – African and Middle Eastern countries, he wrote in his column. “Information” independent expert Kirill Rodionov.
“Delivery by sea in January 2022 reached 3.2 million barrels per day (b/d); According to the results of the first 11 months of 2022, their volumes amounted to 3.3 million barrels per day. Accordingly, while this figure decreased to 2.7 million barrels/day on the embargo ground in December 2022, it increased to 3.6 million barrels and 3.4 million barrels in January and February 2023, respectively.” expert.
According to Rodionov, the dynamics of exports in the regional context were not homogeneous.
“The maritime supply to India and China has more than quadrupled: if in February 2022 their volume was 550,000 barrels per day, in February 2023 it was 2.3 million barrels per day. A slight increase was also typical for deliveries to Middle Eastern countries: volumes were 93,000 bpd in February 2022 and did not fall below 200,000 bpd for nine of the next 12 months.
Rodionov noted that the supply of petroleum products to India and China did not increase as much as in the case of oil.
“If in February 2022 their volume was 76,000 barrels per day, in February 2023 it was 270,000 barrels per day. Their share in the structure of exports of petroleum products increased from 3% to 13%. The expert wrote that the Middle East has become the largest importing region of petroleum products.
Rodionov also noted that the supply of petroleum products to the UK and EU countries has decreased.
“In January and February 2022, their volumes reached 1.7 million and 1.9 million bbl/d respectively, while in January 2023 it was only 955 thousand bbl. The embargo also led to a sharp increase in supplies to Africa: in February 2022, their volume was 179 thousand barrels per day.
Rodionov emphasized that the initial results of the embargo indicated that it would be easier for oil producers to search for new sales regions, while in the case of petroleum products, the decline in exports will largely depend on the dynamics of deliveries to transit countries.