Russian oil shipments recover

After a period of disruption due to adverse weather and maintenance work, Russian oil shipments by sea have picked up speed again. Russia’s crude shipments by sea have rebounded strongly after two weeks of disruptions, with record flows from the country’s main export terminals. Eleven tankers have completed loading the country’s ESPO crude at the Pacific port of Kozmino, recovering after a storm halved exports the previous week. Shipments are back to pre-weather levels. Shipments from the Baltic port of Ust-Luga also increased in the week of February 4 after being disrupted by maintenance work late last month. Shipments from Primorsk also picked up speed. With the return, average weekly shipments rose by about 880,000 bpd, the highest this year. The increase was 400,000 bpd above Moscow’s commitment to its OPEC+ partners for the first quarter, but fell 100,000 bpd short of that target in a four-week measurement that helped cushion short-term factors. Russian exporters are being forced to rely more on the country’s own tankers and an aging shadow fleet of vessels as Greek shipowners pull out of Russian crude trade following escalating U.S. sanctions. The number of Greek-owned tankers carrying Moscow’s crude fell in January to just one-fifth of last May’s levels, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.