Russia’s oil shipments via the Baltic Sea declined 10% over the final four months of 2024 due to the impact of EU sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports, the Finnish Border Guard has reported. Finland’s Coast Guard monitors the shadow fleet that Russia uses to export crude via the Gulf of Finland.
“In the last four or five months of last year, we saw a roughly 10% decline in the amount of oil leaving from Russia,” the Finnish Border Guard’s Head of Maritime Safety Mikko Hirvi told Reuters late last week. “That is of course very good, but on the other hand, older vessels have been added to the traffic on the Baltic Sea at the same time. The vessels in operation are in worse condition than before,” he added, saying it’s difficult to determine whether the decline will only be temporary.
An oil price rally kicked off two weeks ago after the Biden administration announced the harshest sanctions yet on Russian oil. Reuters reported that a purported U.S. Treasury document circulating among traders in Europe and Asia, revealed that some 180 vessels, several senior Russian oil executives, dozens of traders and two major oil companies are targeted by the sanctions. Later, it emerged that the Biden administration has targeted Surgutneftgas and Gazprom Neft, two firms that handle 25% of Russian oil exports. The two companies shipped an average of 970,000 bbls a day in 2024.
India has announced that it will abide by the sanctions and turn away sanctioned tankers. Previously, we reported that the sanctions would severely disrupt Russian oil exports to India and China–the biggest buyers of Russian crude–and could also give Trump more leverage in future negotiations as he tries to end the war in Ukraine. Last year, India briefly overtook China as the largest buyer of Russian crude. However, India’s import of Russian oil in November plummeted 55% Y/Y to its lowest point since June 2022 as the country diversifies its oil supplies.
Source: By Alex Kimani from Oilprice.com