Bloomberg: Offshore crude oil rises to 2020 levels

Last week, the volume of crude oil at sea, delivered to its destination or free floating, reached 1.27 billion barrels, said Bloomberg with reference to data from Vortexa Ltd. The agency notes that the volume of crude oil at sea rose to 2020 levels – then at the peak there were more than 1.3 billion barrels in the sea, which was a record figure for several years.

According to Bloomberg, the increase in the volume of oil on tankers is an indicator that Russian oil is being delivered to buyers at longer distances.

“Russia is redirecting large volumes of its oil to non-EU countries, while Europe is importing its oil from more distant places,” Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst with UBS Group AG, quoted Bloomberg as saying.

Since August 2022, the volume of crude oil at sea has increased by almost 230 million barrels, Bloomberg notes. This happened against the backdrop of a reorientation of Russian oil supplies to Asia, including India and China, after the introduction of an energy embargo by the countries of the European Union and the G7. The agency also notes an increase in the distances of energy delivery routes due to a record increase in oil exports from the United States, as well as Europe’s purchase of oil in other countries.

In the last week of March, Russia broke the record for offshore oil exports, deliveries exceeded 4 million barrels per day. April 11 Bloomberg citing its own calculations wrotethat the volume of oil exports from Russian ports began to decline to below 3 million barrels per day.

Olesya Pavlenko