More than 1 million barrels a day of Russian oil exports are set to be upended by Western sanctions expected to come into force within weeks, shipments Moscow will struggle to redirect elsewhere which threatens to further tighten global energy markets, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
Russian crude oil exports, including to the European Union, were largely unchanged last month, despite the prospect of an imminent EU ban on Russian crude oil imports and a separate plan to cap prices for Russian crude oil sales, the Paris-based agency said in a monthly report.
Russian exports to the EU were 1.5 million barrels a day in October, of which 1.1 million barrels a day will be halted when the bloc’s ban comes into effect on December 5, the IEA said.
It was unclear how much of those supplies Russia would be able to redirect to customers elsewhere in the world, the IEA said. India, China and Turkey have snapped up discounted Russian crude shipments, but buying from those nations has stabilized in recent months, the IEA said. Meanwhile, the volume would be too large for the remaining nations to absorb, the agency said.
The warning comes as the IEA predicted additional demand this year and next would come from China as the nation slowly eases its Covid-19 lockdown measures–though global demand growth will be sluggish as economies are expected to struggle.
The agency upped its 2022 global oil demand forecasts by 170,000 barrels a day to 99.8 million barrels a day. For 2023, the IEA raised its oil demand forecasts by 130,000 barrels a day to 101.4 million barrels a day.
Russia’s declining oil output will drag on global supplies which will grow at an anemic rate next year, failing to keep pace with growing oil demand. The IEA said global oil supplies would rise to 100.7 million barrels a day in 2023, 100,000 barrels a day more than it was forecasting last month, but still 700,000 barrels a day short of the world’s expected appetite for oil
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Write to Will Horner at [email protected]
