Russia halved railway gasoline exports in March after fuel embargo

Russia cut railway exports of gasoline by half in March after imposing a fuel embargo, with rising domestic demand and unplanned refinery outages tightening its home market, data provided by two market sources and Reuters calculations showed.

At the end of February Russia imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports from March 1 to keep prices stable amid rising demand from consumers and farmers and to allow for maintenance of refineries in the world’s second largest oil exporter.

Exceptions were made for fuel supplied under inter-governmental agreements, including with members of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.

According to Reuters calculations based on data from sources, Russian refineries exported about 323,000 metric tons of gasoline by rail in March.

That flowed mainly to Mongolia, which took 75,500 tons, Uzbekistan, which took 53,500 tons, Tajikistan, which received 47,800 tons, and Kyrgyzstan, with 42,300 tons.

Only about 16,500 metric tons of gasoline were shipped last month for export via the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga, nearly 13,300 tons to the Arctic port of Murmansk, and nothing to the ports of Vysotsk, St Petersburg and Novorossiisk, data from the market sources showed.

Traders expected further declines in Russian gasoline exports due to seasonal maintenance and unplanned outages on refineries.

At the end of March about 14% of Russia’s primary oil refining capacity had been partially halted for repairs after Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Reuters calculations.

Russia’s daily offline primary oil refining capacity in April is expected to rise by 9.5% from March to 4.323 million tons, Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources showed.

Russia could also increase gasoline imports for its domestic market from neighbouring Belarus to tackle the risk of local shortages.

Since an EU embargo on imports of Russian oil products went into effect in February 2023, Russia has diverted its gasoline export supplies to countries in Africa and Asia, Turkey and Brazil.

A lack of Russian barrels will open up space on international markets for European sellers, traders added.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jan Harvey)