Last week, Russia's crude oil exports climbed to the highest level this year, averaging 3.7 million barrels per day over the week.
Russia exported last week the highest weekly crude oil volumes so far this year, at 3.7 million barrels per day bpd, up by nearly 600,000 bpd from the previous week and 420,000 bpd more than its pledged export cut this quarter, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed on Tuesday. The jump in the weekly exports in the week to March 10 was likely the result of the return of normal operations at the Far East port of Kozmino, where exports were hampered by a storm in the week to March 3.
The four-week average crude exports by sea were also higher than the targeted exports Moscow has promised as part of the OPEC agreement—these were 80,000 bpd higher than the self-imposed ceiling, per Bloomberg’s calculations. The surge in Russia’s crude oil shipments to the highest so far this year came in the week after Moscow, together with Saudi Arabia and several other OPEC members, announced they would roll over their voluntary supply cuts into the second quarter of the year.