Russia’s oil flows increased despite the insistence on reducing production

Russian crude oil flows to international markets show no indication of the production cuts that the country insists it is doing, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The average seaborne exports rose in a period of 4 weeks, for the sixth consecutive week in the period extending to last Friday, to approach the level of 4 million barrels per day.

Bloomberg indicated that the flows are currently 15% higher since the first week of April, and have recorded a new high for that period since Bloomberg began monitoring them in detail at the beginning of 2022.

On the basis of a four-week average, the total exports shipped by sea in the period extending to last Friday increased by 106,000 barrels per day, to reach 3.9 million barrels per day, which is the highest since Bloomberg began monitoring the flows in detail early last year.

With all Russian crude going to China and India, volumes to Asia also rose to a new peak.

The more volatile weekly flows have therefore decreased.

Russia had pledged to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March, using February’s production as a basis, in response to Western sanctions and capping the price of its oil exports, aimed at punishing Moscow for invading Ukraine.

Those cuts extended for the rest of the year, in line with voluntary cuts by many of Russia’s OPEC+ alliance partners.

Russia continues to stress its commitment to OPEC+ producers, and the production cuts agreed by the coalition.