Russia’s refiners, keen to take advantage of good margins, have increased output and companies have exported more refined products despite an EU embargo and oil price cap, data cited by two industry sources showed, and two traders said.

What Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine has led to an EU embargo on Russian oil products and a G7 oil price cap, both of which both took effect on Feb. 5.

In the months since the embargo, Russia increased its fuel supplies to Turkey, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, diversifying its fuel sales.

Last year, Russian oil refineries massively cut runs in March and April during maintenance, as well as because of market uncertainty. This year, Russian refiners are confident they can place the barrels, the traders said.

In March, when seasonal spring maintenance on refinery plants normally begins, Russia’s oil refinery throughput jumped nearly 10% year-on-year to 24.1 million tonnes from 22.0 million tonnes last year, according to the data and Reuters calculations.

In April, Russia’s oil refinery runs are expected to exceed 23 million tonnes, based on operative daily data seen by the sources, and to rise by some 17% from the same period last year, Reuters calculations showed.

Overall, in January-March this year, Russian refinery runs were at nearly 70 million tonnes, up more than 1% from the same period of last year, Reuters calculations based on the sources’ data showed.

In April several refiners decided to delay routine work on the plants for a couple of months to cash in on good margins, the sources said.

“We decided to postpone works as much as infrastructure allows as sales are good,” – a source with an independent Russian oil refinery told Reuters on condition of anonymity as the source is not authorised to speak to the press.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Barbara Lewis)