Russia has increased oil deliveries to Europe to a new maximum since April 2022. This is evidenced by monitoring agency Bloomberg, which monitors tanker shipments from Russian ports. Russia's oil revenues also hit multi-month highs: Moscow currently receives about $183 million a week from oil export duties, up 26% in seven days. Moreover, the size of the discount on Russian Urals has significantly decreased - from $34.39 to $18.68 per barrel.
The total volume of oil supplies from Russia reached 3.41 million barrels per day by August 19 against 3.24 million a week earlier. The entire increase in deliveries came from European countries, while deliveries to the countries of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and also to Northern Europe were growing. The agency notes that countries are likely trying to increase supplies and buy ahead of time in anticipation of the oil embargo, which will work in the EU from December 2022.
An additional increase in supplies in the near future can be expected against the backdrop of Russian oil supplies to new markets - we are talking about Sri Lanka, Egypt and even Afghanistan. However, against this background, Russian oil supplies to Asia began to fall: last week, Russia shipped 1.71 million barrels of oil to Asia, which is significantly lower than 2.1 million barrels per day in April and May.
Oil deliveries to Bulgaria and Romania reached their maximums in almost two months: in total, their level amounted to 260,000 barrels per day. Among the countries of Northern Europe, the agency highlights the increase in supplies to the Netherlands and Poland (the rest of the countries in the region have stopped buying Russian oil since June). The agency estimates the volume of oil exports to Northern Europe at 398,000 barrels per day. About 860,000 barrels per day are accounted for by Turkey and Italy.
In addition to boosting Russian oil deliveries to the EU, European companies helped boost Russian oil deliveries to third countries to a record high. Greek companies have become the leaders in Russian oil deliveries. Since December, an oil embargo will be put into effect on Russian oil, and all tanker deliveries of Russian fuel to the EU countries will be banned. Exceptions are provided only for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, which receive Russian oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline.