Kommersant: Russian oil exports dip 11% in December

Russian daily, Kommersant reported today, Wednesday, quoting unidentified informed sources, that Russian oil exports fell 11 percent in the period from December 1 to December 20, compared to the previous month, after an embargo imposed by the European Union on Russian oil entered into force.

According to Reuters, the newspaper added that Russia’s exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States, including shipments via pipelines and transported by sea, amounted in total to approximately 560,000 tons per day during the aforementioned period.

The European Union’s ban on Russian oil purchases came into force on December 5, in a move that Brussels says will reduce the Union’s imports of Russian oil by 90 percent. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Europe was buying about half of all Russian oil exports

Russia quickly shifted its energy trade east this year, selling record quantities to countries such as India and China. The Kremlin hopes that demand from Asia will compensate for the disruption of traditional supplies from Russia to European buyers.