Russia slashes May oil exports from sea ports before OPEC+ cuts – schedule
in Freight News,Port News 25/04/2020
Russian oil companies will cut their crude oil loadings from Baltic ports and Black Sea’s Novorossiisk in May to 5.42 million tonnes, the lowest level in 20 years, the preliminary loading schedule seen by Reuters showed on Friday.
Russia, which has joined an OPEC+ pact to curb oil supplies, has agreed to cut its output by 8.5 million bpd starting on May 1, from a baseline of 11 million bpd.
Russian oil companies are preparing the biggest output cuts ever, which may lead to permanent shutdown of some oilfields and will cause significant costs.
On a daily basis, Russia will cut oil exports from Baltic ports and Novorossiisk by 43% compared to April, Reuters calculations show.
As the cuts are the most significant ever attempted by Moscow, Urals exports are set to fall to their lowest since at least the early 2000s, Refinitiv Eikon data shows. C-RU-EXP
Urals crude oil combined exports from Primorsk and Ust-Luga ports set to fall to just 4.3 million tonnes from 6.7 million tonnes in April, according to the preliminary schedule. It means Baltic oil exports will fall by 38% on a daily basis, Reuters calculations show.
Urals and Siberian Light crude oil exports from Novorossisk port are set to fall to 1.12 million tonnes in May from 2.56 million tonnes planned for loading in April, according to the schedule. On a daily basis, this is a 55% fall compared to April, Reuters calculations show.
Loadings of sweet Siberian Light crude will fall to just two cargoes of 80,000 tonnes each compared to 6-7 cargoes normally. April Siberian Light cargoes traded at record wide discounts to dated Brent due to weak demand.
Source: Reuters (Editing by Edmund Blair and David Evans)