Russia plans to cut daily diesel exports from key western ports in April to a five-month low.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
According to the agency, loading of diesel fuel from the countryʼs three main ports on the Black and Baltic seas, including some volumes from Belarus, will fall to about 2.29 million tons this month.
Thus, Russia will export a little more than 569,000 barrels per day — this is 21% less compared to the actual daily export of 724,000 barrels from the same ports in March, the journalists write, citing data from the Kpler analytical company.
Russia is cutting back on seaborne diesel shipments as weekly crude output fell to a 10-month low following drone attacks.
In addition, seasonal maintenance, which will continue until the summer, will temporarily reduce the throughput of some Russian refineries, which will also affect the flow of diesel fuel in the country.
- Since the beginning of 2024, Ukraine has intensified attacks on oil and gas facilities on the territory of Russia — refineries, oil depots, and gas terminals.
- In particular, on March 13 in Ryazan, Russia, an oil refinery caught fire after a drone attack. Prior to that, drones attacked a refinery in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and an oil depot in Oryol. At the same time, the oil refinery of the Lukoil company in the Nizhny Novgorod region lost part of its capacity due to the attack. On March 17, another oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation caught fire due to a drone attack.
- Against the background of the attacks, stock exchange prices for gasoline AI-92 and AI-95 and summer diesel fuel have increased by 8-23% since the beginning of the year.
- On March 22, the Financial Times wrote that the US even called on Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, as this could raise global oil prices and provoke attacks on Ukrainian energy in response.
- At the end of March, a sharp decline in gasoline production was recorded in Russia — gasoline production in the country fell by 7.4% and amounted to 754.6 thousand tons.