At the end of September, Russia reached the symbolic threshold of 100,000 million euros in income from its hydrocarbon exports since the invasion of Ukraine. This is the shocking figure revealed this Tuesday by the think-tank Research Center for Energy and Clean Air (Crea). The country of Vladimir Putin has compensated for the cessation of European imports of its coal in force since August 10 and the drastic drop in those of its gas thanks to its shipments of crude oil, petroleum derivatives, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas by pipeline that have collected 260 million euros… daily.
Crea indicates that these revenues could have been much lower if the European Union had put a cap on the prices of Russian fossil fuels, a measure discussed at the G7 summit in late June. Its application would have reduced the bill by 11,000 million euros since the beginning of July. This gain could even have amounted to more than €14 billion if the system had been extended to fossil fuel shipments transported to third countries on board ships owned by Europeans.
In detail, Germany claims the largest drop in gas imports due to the interruption of deliveries through the Nord Stream pipeline. For its part, Greece increased its imports of crude oil.
A difficult summer exit for Russia
However, short-term analysis reveals that the return to school is painful for the Russian economy. All Russian hydrocarbon exports have fallen since August, while those of liquefied natural gas have remained stable. Revenue from its fossil fuel exports fell 14% between September and August. Despite the growing proportion of relay customers found by Russia, such as India, China, Turkey and Malaysia, the European Union remained the main importer of Russian fossil fuels in September.
These handovers have particularly alleviated the shortfall caused by Western suspensions, even if some EU member states have failed to enforce a ban on European ships carrying Russian coal to other countries. Negligence that allowed Russia to recover half of its losses on the European market. Therefore, it is Turkey that has been able to take advantage of the situation since two out of three ships that deliver Russian coal belong to countries of the European Union.
Asian countries as lifesavers
In general, it is in Asia that Russia has strengthened its commercial ties and even found new clients. This is the case of India, for example, which practically did not import fossil fuels from Russia before the invasion of Ukraine and which today receives large amounts of crude oil. “Chinese imports of crude oil from Russia began to decline in September, probably due to the general drop in oil demand,” observes Crea.
On the other hand, imports of Russian black gold from Malaysia experienced a new peak in September, as did those of liquefied natural gas for Japan and those of coal for South Korea.
Source: BFM TV
