“India and Saudi Arabia were the main destinations for Russian seaborne exports of fuel oil and vacuum gas oil (VGO) in October.”, — write: www.epravda.com.ua
India and Saudi Arabia were the main destinations for Russian seaborne exports of fuel oil and vacuum gas oil (VGO) in October.
This is reported by the Reuters agency.
Total exports of fuel oil and VGO from Russian ports last month fell 3% from September to about 4.15 million tonnes, according to a Reuters estimate based on data from LSEG.
Since the beginning of the full embargo of the European Union on Russian oil products in February 2023, Asia has become the main sales market for Russian supplies of fuel oil and VGO.
Direct shipments of fuel oil and VGO from Russian ports to Saudi Arabia in October fell 9% from the previous month to 0.65 million tons, due to lower demand after the end of the summer heat.
Fuel oil and VGO exports from Russia to India rose 56% to 0.51 million tonnes, while shipments of dark oil products to China fell 35% to 0.47 million tonnes. China and India use straight-run fuel oil and VGO as a cheaper alternative to Urals oil for their refineries.
At the same time, China is planning a tax reform that could raise the cost of importing fuel oil, potentially reducing demand. This will put additional pressure on independent Chinese refineries, which typically use fuel oil as an alternative feedstock for refining.
At the moment, tankers with about 0.5 million tons of heavy oil products from Russian ports are headed for Singapore, but some of these cargoes may end up in China.