Russia has started importing petrol from India, as Ukrainian attacks on its refineries trigger severe local shortages, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday.
It’s the first time Moscow has imported the motor fuel from the South Asian nation, according to Kpler data, “with the lengthy journey required an indication of how dire the crunch is becoming.”
The first shipment was received on August 5, and more may be on the way, according to Kpler. Domestic processor Nayara Energy Ltd. — backed by Russia’s top oil producer, Rosneft PJSC, has emerged as a source of the fuel, which is being moved on a chain of Russian-linked tankers via transfers off Egypt.
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“The emergence of Indian barrels is particularly notable,” said Sumit Ritolia, lead analyst at Kpler. The cargoes, which complement continued imports from Belarus and other neighboring markets, highlight “the severity of the current domestic petrol imbalance, and the extent to which lower refinery runs are reshaping Russia’s traditional product trade flows,” he said.
Tensions in energy markets
The global energy market is facing pressure from disruptions linked to two conflicts, with Ukraine continuing attacks on Russian refineries and tensions between the US and Iran persisting in the Middle East. The combined impact has tightened fuel supplies, prompting Russia, a major fuel exporter, to halt petrol and diesel exports to safeguard domestic availability.
Following a wave of attacks, EA Analytics estimated that Russia’s crude-processing rates were running at 3.6 million barrels a day in July, about a third below the seasonal norm. Since then, Kyiv has intensified strikes, hitting five processors last week and at least two more this week.
Since getting sanctioned by the European Union in July last year, Nayara has been relying on so-called dark-fleet tankers and transshipment operations to receive its crude, and export fuels, said Bloomberg. Its 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery at Vadinar on India’s west coast also needs to widen its export market, after a key buyer, Hindustan Petroleum Corp., recently started producing more of its own fuel in the region.
For the inaugural shipment, Russian-flagged products tanker Cyclone (formerly Agni) loaded a 42,000-ton petrol cargo from Vadinar on June 18, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. The fuel was then transferred to the Oman-flagged Garnet at Damietta Port, off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, on July 6. That vessel then reached Russia in early August.
More petrol may follow. The products tanker Varg loaded nearly 40,000 tons of the fuel at Vadinar on July 6 and likely conducted a ship-to-ship transfer at Damietta in late July, based on changes in its draft, according to Kpler. Ship-to-ship transfers, or STS, typically take place so individual vessels can cut travel times.
No receiving vessel has been confirmed so far, although Kpler has flagged Beast as a possible candidate. The tanker was at Damietta and showed a rise in draft on July 30-31, indicating a possible cargo transfer. Beast had listed Tangier in Morocco as its destination but has since passed the port and is now heading north through the Atlantic, with its cargo still on board, according to the data.
Another products tanker, the Cameroon-flagged Photon, departed Vadinar on July 13. It later transferred its petrol cargo at Damietta to the Russia-flagged Talisman on July 28-29, the data showed.
Except for Garnet, all the vessels were registered on Russia’s ship register. The European Union has sanctioned all of them, while Garnet and Talisman have also been sanctioned by the US.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
