On 22th of February Legion Oil & Gas LLC has attended the Argus base oils conference in London, where Managing Director Denis Varaksin attributed the decrease to the difficult export conditions caused by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and gave a presentation.
Although Russia has tried to shift exports to other destinations, this has been problematic, he said. High-profile alternative markets include Turkey, which has doubled its imports of Russian products to more than 120,000 tons, but is probably unable to absorb more basic petroleum products.
Nigeria has been another established destination for Russian supplies, but imports of base crude oil from this West African country fell by 20,000-30,000 tons to 260,000-270,000 tons in 2022. A devalued currency could restrict Nigeria’s ability to import.
India is another prospective substitute market with a large appetite for imports. However, discounted products of Iranian origin could compete with Russian base oils, which are impacted by limited cargo capacities and high insurance fees.
Sending Russian products to South America encounters the same problems, and these shipments will more than halve to 20,000 tons in 2022. As buyers in North America are avoiding Russian products, exports are likely to continue to decline in 2023.
Original article published by Argus: https://okt.to/0yU9xt
