Russia seeks new fuel markets in Africa, Middle East as Europe turns away
Russia is increasing gasoline and naphtha supplies to Africa and the Middle East as it struggles to sell fuel in Europe, while Asia is already taking bigger volumes of Russian crude, Refinitiv Eikon data showed and sources said.
The development is likely to increase competition for Asian customers between Russia and other big fuel exporters – Saudi Arabia and the United States – which are the top three suppliers to Asia.
Asian buyers have stepped in to rapidly increase purchases of Russian crude, even though Asia is not a natural market for Russian fuel because Asia refines more oil than it needs and is a net fuel exporter.
That makes finding new outlets such as Africa and the Middle East paramount for Russia to protect its global market share and avert a deeper decline in oil exports and output.
Russian oil companies have recently increased supplies of gasoline and naphtha to Africa and the Middle East from the Baltics, traders said. Before sanctions, most Russian supply to the regions came from the Black Sea ports.
At least five cargoes carrying about 230,000 tonnes of gasoline and naphtha were supplied in May-June from the Baltic port of Ust-Luga to Oman and to the UAE oil hub of Fujairah, based on Refinitiv data.
In total, naphtha and gasoline supplies from Russian ports to Oman and UAE have totalled nearly 550,000 tonnes this year compared with zero in the whole 2021, data showed.
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