26 January 2018, News Wires — Urals crude oil loadings from Russia’s Primorsk and Ust-Luga ports in February have been set at 5.1 million tonnes compared with 5.6 million tonnes in January, the preliminary schedule released on Friday showed.
On a daily basis, Urals crude oil loadings from Russia’s Baltic ports are set to rise by 1 percent in the shorter month of February, compared to January, Reuters calculations show.
The full February Urals and Siberian Light loading plan from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk has yet to be released, traders said.
Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia was unable to reduce output sharply but would try to do so more quickly, after OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia criticised Moscow over the pace of its cuts.
Exports have also been pushed up because of refinery outages in Russia have left more crude for sale abroad and because cuts in export duty have made it profitable for traders to find more foreign buyers.
Energy Ministry data showed Russian offline primary oil refining capacity would rise by more than 50 percent to 1.3 million tonnes in January from initial estimates, mainly due to incidents at Rosneft’s plants.
Russia’s oil export duty is also expected to fall by 9.3 percent in February to $80.7 per tonne compared with January, following a decline in oil prices, the Finance Ministry said this week.
- Reuters