Moscow — Russia’s revenues from crude oil and refined products fell again in September, as exports of the latter plunged to the lowest in a decade excluding the COVID-hit April 2020, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
Russia’s vital energy industry is under strain from a pickup in Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries and pipelines, as well as Western sanctions.
The Paris-based IEA said Russia’s revenues from crude and fuel sales fell to $13.35 billion in September from $13.58 billion in August, due also to lower prices. That followed a steep decline in August from July.
CRUDE EXPORTS RISE, OIL PRODUCTS FALL
“Persistent attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have cut Russian crude processing by an estimated 500,000 barrels per day, resulting in domestic fuel shortages and lower product exports,” the IEA said in a monthly report.
It said Russian crude and oil product exports rose by 210,000 bpd to 7.4 million bpd in September, as a pickup in crude exports more than offset the decline in oil products.
Crude exports rose 370,000 bpd to 5.1 million bpd, the highest since May 2023, as lower refining throughput freed up barrels for international markets.
But product exports dropped 170,000 bpd to 2.4 million bpd, mainly driven by gasoil and fuel oil. Preliminary data suggests shipments to Saudi Arabia fell in particular, the IEA said.
A $200 million rise in crude export revenue was more than offset by a $440 million drop for products.
The IEA also said the discount of Russia’s flagship Urals crude to the North Sea benchmark widened to more than $13 per barrel in early October, the largest since May, as Russia’s surplus barrels joined an over-supplied global market.
The agency said Russian oil production increased 170,000 bpd last month to 9.21 million bpd, from a downwardly revised 9.03 million bpd in August.
That compares with the 9.321 million bpd assessed by the producer group OPEC and Russia’s output quota from the OPEC+ alliance of 9.415 million bpd.
The IEA also said Kazakhstan’s crude oil supply declined by 20,000 bpd from August to 1.84 million bpd last month amid export disruptions for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which accounts for around 80% of the country’s oil exports.
