Crude and product exports from Russia's major Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga saw the biggest slide overall, with product flows down 150,000 b/d and crude loadings 90,000 b/d lower month on month, the data shows. Novatek's Ust-Luga condensate processing terminal was damaged in a Jan. 21 strike from a suspected Ukrainian drone. Although loadings have since resumed at the plant's terminal, it remains unclear how much capacity remains offline due to the attack.
Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience.
Register NowUkraine has launched a fresh offensive against Russia's fuels and oil export infrastructure this year, many of which have come from a new breed of long-distance drones.
Exports from the Black Sea port of Tuapse, however, rose by almost 30,000 b/d month on month to average 226,000 b/d, despite a Jan. 25 drone attack on Rosneft's 240,000 b/d Tuapse refinery that damaged the plant's vacuum distillation unit.
Poor weather also hampered oil loadings at Russia's biggest Back Sea oil port of Novorossiisk, with crude and product exports down 25,000 b/d and 45,000 b/d, respectively, month on month, according to the data.
Fuel exports to Brazil, which absorbed record flows of 281,000 b/d of Russian fuels in December, fell sharply in January. At the same time, offshore ship-to-ship transfers of fuels -- which often end up with Russia's main oil-buying customers in Asia and Turkey -- rose sharply month on month to 340,000 b/d, a significant rebound from a recent slump to 82,000 b/d in November, when the US and EU tightened enforcement on sanctions-dodging tankers.
