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By Shadia Nasralla
LONDON, Might 17 (Reuters) – Sea-borne oil has thrown a lifeline to refiners in jap Germany and Poland, with non-Russian deliveries into the Polish port of Gdansk hitting at the least seven-year highs this month as they swap away from Russian provide.
Imports booked for Might into Gdansk from Egypt, america, Norway, Britain and West Africa had hit 8.4 million barrels by Might 16, their highest degree based on Refinitiv Eikon ship monitoring knowledge that goes again to 2015.
On the similar time, Russian crude booked for Might into Gdansk and the port of Rostock stood at 700,000 barrels, down from a excessive of 12.9 million in Might 2019, the information confirmed.
“Non-Russian sea-borne crude volumes in the direction of Gdansk have elevated on the expense of Russian barrels,” stated Ioannis Papadimitriou, senior freight analyst with oil analytics agency Vortexa.
The steep rise in such provide comes as Europe works towards an outright ban on Russian oil.
Imports into Gdansk from Norway in April and from america and by way of Egypt in Might all hit highs, the Refinitiv knowledge confirmed.
Norwegian imports in April hit 2.2 million barrels, just like U.S. volumes booked for Might whereas these booked by way of Egypt this month have hit 5.7 million thus far, the information confirmed.
“Poland is changing Russian oil by Saudi crude oil provide by way of the Egyptian port of Sidi Kerir,” stated Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior oil analyst at Refinitiv.
“Crude imports from nations apart from Russia at the moment are on the highest in historical past.”
In January, Saudi Aramco agreed to purchase a 30% stake in Lotos, Poland’s second largest refinery, and to extend oil provides to Poland’s prime vitality agency PKN Orlen to 200,000-337,000 barrels per day (bpd), denting Russia’s dominance within the area.
This deal would possibly buffer a number of the larger freight prices for oil shipped from the Center East, Ul-Haq added.
Anders Opedal, chief govt of Norwegian vitality agency Equinor, instructed Reuters that every one crude from Norway’s Johan Sverdrup oilfield, the biggest in Western Europe, is now going to Europe, whereas a 12 months in the past about 60% of it went to Asia.
Imports from the British North Sea haven’t elevated markedly since battle started in Ukraine in February however they’ve turn out to be extra common since late 2021.
LARGER PIPED SUPPLY
Germany’s authorities has hailed imports into the 2 Baltic Sea ports of Gdansk and Rostock as promising options to Russian oil although the volumes nonetheless stand at a fraction of the capability of Russia’s Druzhba Pipeline, which in February delivered about 22.4 million barrels.
Rostock has but to come back into play, nevertheless, with the one crude oil discharged there since June 2019 delivered final month from Russia. Since early 2015, there have solely been 9 crude cargoes in Rostock, 4 of which from Russia.
“Exports in the direction of Rostock since March stay at zero with the area struggling to diversify from Russian barrels,” Vortexa’s Papadimitriou stated.
Gdansk oil refinery’s capability is 210,000 bpd, second to Polish state oil refinery Plock, with about 270,000 bpd. In jap Germany, Druzhba provides 233,000 bpd to the Schwedt refinery and the 240,000 bpd Leuna refinery.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla, further reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; modifying by Jason Neely)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022.
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