Russia increases oil exports from Baltic ports after Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries

Western Russian ports are preparing for an additional 10 tanker voyages to compensate for the loss of processing capacity.

Russia plans to significantly increase oil exports through western ports in August – to almost 2 million barrels per day, which is 200 thousand barrels more than previously expected. This is reported by Reuters.

This decision was a direct consequence of Ukrainian drone strikes on the Ryazan and Novokuibyshevsk oil refineries, which were forced to stop some of the installations for a month.

Additional export volumes are expected to be shipped through the Baltic and Black Sea terminals by attracting about 10 more Aframax tankers, each of which is capable of transporting 80-100 thousand tons of oil. This will compensate for the decrease in domestic processing and preserve foreign exchange earnings from the sale of raw materials.

Experts predict that the increase in Russian exports, together with the increase in production under the OPEC+ agreement, may increase pressure on world oil prices.

At the same time, the United States is increasing pressure on India, which is the largest buyer of Russian Urals oil. Indian state-owned refineries are already reducing purchases from Russia, replacing them with other grades.

In 2024, the Ryazan refinery processed 262 thousand barrels per day (about 5% of the national volume), and Novokuibyshev – 115 thousand barrels per day. The shutdown of even part of these capacities forced Moscow to use sea logistics more actively to export crude oil in order to avoid the accumulation of surpluses in storage facilities.

As we recall, USM recently reported that Indian refineries are refusing to purchase Russian oil due to US tariffs.