(Bloomberg) -- Russian oil-product exports rebounded in the first half of this month, driven by a recovery in diesel and fuel oil shipments amid improved refining rates.
Seaborne flows of petroleum products totaled about 2.2m barrels a day in the first 15 days of September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd. That’s up almost 10% from the daily average for all of the previous month.
Russian oil exports are being closely watched by the market to estimate production volumes, since Moscow stopped releasing official output data. The country’s oil revenue has been pressured as a drop in prices more than offset a small increase in four-week average crude flows to 3.21 million barrels a day in the week to Sept. 15.
Refined fuel exports have picked up as refining rates improved after being hampered by a drone attack on a Russian refinery. Shipments plunged to a four-month low in August due to weaker diesel and fuel oil flows that together account for roughly 70% of all refined fuel shipments from the nation.
Here’s a breakdown of shipments from Russian ports from Sept. 1-15:
Exports of diesel and gasoil totaled about 807,000 barrels a day. That’s up 10% from the previous month, when shipments slipped to the lowest since October. The government has been cracking down on so-called gray fuel shipments by companies that don’t produce diesel.
Naphtha shipments fell roughly 5% to 401,000 barrels a day. About three-quarters of those cargoes sailed for Asia.
Gasoline and blending component shipments increased to 79,000 barrels a day. No jet-fuel shipments were observed for the month so far.
Fuel oil shipments jumped 13% to 749,000 barrels a day, the highest so far this year. Flows of refinery feedstocks like vacuum gasoil climbed to a four-month high of 149,000 barrels a day.
Cargo volumes and destinations are likely to be revised as more shipments are observed for the rest of the month.
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