Russia's seaborne oil products exports rose by 10 per cent month-on-month to about 4.2 million tonnes in the first 15 days of May as key ports partially restored fuel loadings, according to LSEG shipping data and market sources.
Fuel export growth was driven by the release of inventories built up during earlier disruptions caused by intensive drone attacks, traders said, although May shipments remained capped by unplanned and seasonal refinery maintenance and rising domestic demand.
Diesel loadings via the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk, the country's biggest outlet for exports of ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD), reached 710,000 tonnes in the first half of May, roughly unchanged from the same period in April.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure, doubling the number of oil refineries targeted since the start of the year. Major plants in Kirishi in western Russia, Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga river and Perm in the Urals mountains have been among those hit.
In late March, drone strikes on the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga caused fires at fuel storage tanks, leaving terminals unable to handle oil products shipments for several weeks. In May, Baltic ports gradually resumed fuel loadings, although not yet at full capacity, market sources said.
Ukrainian drones also repeatedly struck Russia's Black Sea port of Tuapse last month, as well as the nearby Rosneft-owned Tuapse refinery, forcing a shutdown of oil processing and fuel loading operations. Traders said exports were partly rerouted to other Russian ports.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
