Europe practically did not notice the imposed sanctions against Russian oil products, although a month ago experts and market participants expressed concerns about the shortage of diesel and other oil products after the introduction of the price ceiling. However, European countries almost instantly managed to reorganize the logistics of supplies from Russia to the Middle East and Asia, writes Bloomberg, citing data from Vortexa Ltd.
Diesel deliveries in February already exceeded those of January, despite fears of interruption in supplies. Moreover, the volume of deliveries from Asia and the Middle East hit seven-year highs, and their share rose to 60% of imports, a record since 2016, the agency notes. The total volume of deliveries in February should reach 1.55 million barrels of oil products per day, which is significantly higher than in January, when a significant share of deliveries came from Russia.
“The lack of Russian barrels has likely opened up opportunities for suppliers east of the Suez Canal,” said Vortexa analyst Pamela Munger. According to her, about 60% of diesel fuel imports from the Middle East and Asia from February 1 to 18 fell on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region.
Deliveries of Russian products have fallen to a seven-year low and are estimated by Vortexa at only 282,000 barrels per day. For comparison, the average export of oil products from Russia to the EU in 2021 was 681 thousand barrels per day, that is, in just two weeks of Western sanctions, Russia has already lost more than 60% of the European market.
Europe quickly and painlessly survived the rejection of Russian oil products, the agency notes that this was facilitated by an active search for alternative suppliers, a decrease in domestic consumption, as well as a warm winter, which helped, among other things, to significantly increase fuel reserves in storage facilities. Although until recently, experts were worried that the European authorities were not taking enough measures to avoid diesel shortages, and in some countries even local supply problems were recorded, however, Europe managed to avoid serious difficulties.