Refineries that refused Russian oil remain without profit – Kommersant

Asian oil refineries (refineries) that have abandoned Russian oil have practically ceased to profit from processing Middle Eastern oil, the agency reports. Bloomberg. We are talking about plants “in some parts of Asia”, and some of these enterprises, against the backdrop of the current situation, are considering the possibility of reducing production. At the same time, refineries that continue to purchase oil from the Russian Federation benefit.

“The Russian “oil boom” (rising prices for Russian oil, despite the embargo imposed by the West) is becoming a problem for oil refiners who are missing out on profits, they are thinking about reducing production volumes. There are also suggestions that in the near future cuts may also occur in Europe,” say analysts interviewed by journalists.

It is clarified that “in those parts of Asia where Russian oil is no longer sold due to sanctions, refineries are making almost no profit.” The publication says that now effectively imposed restrictions on the sale of Russian oil “increasingly put at a disadvantage those refineries that can no longer buy oil from an OPEC+ producer.

At the same time, for refineries in India and China, which continue to buy oil at a discount from Russia and other sanctioned countries such as Iran and Venezuela, the situation is diametrically opposite, Bloomberg notes.

Because of this situation, many companies began to make attempts to bypass the oil sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation. In particular, according to Bloomberg, in the first quarter of 2023, Russian oil was sold to Asian countries in violation of the G7 sanctions policy, including the price ceiling. Analysts noted that almost all oil coming from the port of Kozmino (Primorsky Krai, near Nakhodka) was sold at a price that exceeded the established limit of $60 per barrel. At the same time, in at least half of the cases, the services of companies from the G7 countries were used for fuel transportation. However, they are prohibited from doing so if the fuel is sold above the price ceiling. The publication added that the average price of oil sold from all ports and through pipelines was $58.62 per barrel.

Alexander Kislov