Russian Oil Flows Show First Signs of Drop Months After Cuts Vow
Four-week average shipments fall below February average with lower volumes from western ports
Russia's seaborne crude flows may finally be showing the first signs of output cuts.
BloombergFlows of Russian crude are starting to show signs of falling, more than four months after the country was due to slash production.
Crude shipments through Russia’s western ports in the four weeks to July 9 dropped substantially below their average February level for the first time, after volumes surged during the intervening months, according to vessel tracking data monitored by Bloomberg and corroborated by other data sources.
Nationwide seaborne crude flows fell to 2.86 million barrels a day in the week to July 9. That was a little more than 1 million barrels a day lower than the previous week, with 80% of the drop coming from ports in western Russia. Moscow has said previously that lower flows resulting from its output cut would be targeted at ports on the Baltic and Black Sea. There was no obvious sign of maintenance at Russian ports like that which led to the big drop seen two weeks ago.