Saudi Arabia imports millions of barrels of diesel from Russia despite having more than enough.
The Kingdom is the world’s largest exporter of crude oil and a major seller of petroleum products. However, in the first 10 days of March, Riyadh imported nearly 2.5 million barrels of diesel fuel from Russia, according to Kpler data compiled by Bloomberg, far more than at any time in the last six years. Thus, the record of any previous period was broken.
At the same time, massive amounts of fuel continue to be shipped from Saudi Arabia to Europe, in what sounds like a potentially lucrative deal in theory. These strange flows also show how the direction of global energy trade is changing after the introduction of various sanctions on supplies from Russia.
But in general, even such a “turn” in logistics is a profitable business.
said Eugene Lindell, head of downstream products at consulting firm Facts Global Energy.
It’s also good for Russia, he said, because it means the Russians won’t have to cut refining capacity.
According to Bloomberg, exports of Russian diesel to Brazil, Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia have also increased in recent months, although many barrels are stored in floating storage (on the ships that brought the cargo), but record deliveries to Saudi Arabia, an exporter, are indicative and not an importer, like all the countries above.
Analysts say the exact economics of Saudi Arabia’s record diesel shipments are difficult to understand, but it’s likely traders could potentially profit by essentially buying Russian fuel and also reselling it to Europe at a higher price. Turkey achieves roughly the same turnover, importing diesel fuel from Russia, while exporting a huge quantity of this product to the EU.
To answer questions about the Russian Federation’s bizarre commodity purchases, representatives from giant Saudi Aramco said they are importing refined petroleum products from several sources to meet domestic demand.
The company continues to try to balance these needs, and it has been practiced since before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
- says the official statement.
