Shipments of crude to China and India have surged as Moscow redirects supplies from the EU

Russia has sharply increased oil shipments to China and India this year, Nikolay Tokarev, the CEO of the Russian state-owned pipeline transport company Transneft, told the Rossiya24 broadcaster this week.

Russia remained China’s top crude supplier in November as Beijing imported around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), according to Chinese customs data. Imports of Russian oil jumped by 22.2% between January and November compared to the same period last year.

India, which boasts Asia’s third-largest economy and is the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has also become a major importer of Russian crude oil. According to ship-tracking data, India’s imports of Russian crude hit a four-month high last month, amounting to 1.6 million bpd.

“Export volumes to China and India have increased significantly, many times over. I can say that about 70 million tons of oil were supplied to India this year, while about 100 million tons of oil went to China,” Tokarev said in an interview. 

Since last year, Russia has diversified its energy supplies in response to Western sanctions after the EU stopped accepting the country’s oil transported by sea. Russian oil companies have rerouted supplies of East Siberian crude to Asia and resumed transportation by rail. The port of Kozmino, located at the end of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline system in Russia’s Far East, has handled about 42.5 million tons this year. 

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“We have brought the nearby Gruzovaya railway station into proper operating condition so that the railway can supply an additional 7 million tons for transshipment to Kozmino,” Tokarev said. According to the CEO, new markets for Russian energy exports have also emerged, including Egypt, Morocco, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

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