The European Union is considering allowing individual member states to block LNG imports from Russia without slapping sanctions on Russian gas, a draft document seen by Bloomberg News showed on Tuesday ahead of a meeting of the EU energy ministers.
Russia’s crude oil exports by sea have held above the 3 million barrels per day (bpd) mark in the past six weeks, after the EU ban on fuel imports from Russia took effect and after Moscow said it would lower its production by 500,000 bpd, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
Historically, giant commodity traders such as Switzerland’s Vitol, Glencore, and Gunvor as well as Singapore’s Trafigura have dominated the global oil trade while smaller trading desks that lack the wherewithal and deep infrastructure networks of the giants usually feed on crumbs.
A little over a year ago, the United States government banned the importation of Russian crude, petroleum, oils and products of their distillation, LNG coal and coal products
Russia was the single largest crude oil supplier to China in January and February, overtaking Saudi Arabia which was the number-one supplier of oil to China last year, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters.
Russia expects its oil and gas production to fall this year compared to 2022, partly due to the production cuts announced for March, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Russia’s exports of oil products by sea slipped by 10.4% in February as the EU embargo and the G7 price caps on Russian fuels came into force, Reuters has estimated based on data from industry sources.
Pakistan is looking to buy Russian oil at $50 per barrel, media reported on Sunday, as the South Asian country is grappling with an economic and foreign reserves liquidity crisis.
The leaders of the OPEC+ coalition, Russia and Saudi Arabia, pledged to continue close cooperation in oil policy in the group during a visit of Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister to Moscow on Thursday.
Official documents seen by JOY NEWS show that the vessel alleged to have shipped 600,000 barrels of Russian crude oil to Ghana had its port of loading in Kazakhstan.