Russia continues high levels of crude processing in mid-December

Russia’s oil processing in the past week remained close to its highest daily refining runs in more than eight months amid decreased seaborne exports.

The nation’s refineries processed around 5.65 million barrels of crude a day from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. That’s down some 50,000 barrels a day, or 0.88%, from the previous seven days, when average daily refinery runs reached the highest since early April. 

Russian daily crude refining in the first 20 days of December averaged around 5.57 million barrels a day, up almost 60,000 barrels a day on most of November, according to Bloomberg calculations based on historic data. 

Russia’s refinery runs are scrutinized by oil market watchers as it’s one of the key remaining gauges — alongside seaborne crude exports — to follow trends in the nation’s production after the government classified official output data amid international sanctions. 

Daily overseas crude supplies from Russian ports fell sharply to 3.18 million barrels a day in the week to Dec. 17 amid a brief pause in shipments from the Baltic port of Primorsk, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg show. Still, the less volatile four-week average increased by 80,000 barrels a day. 

Russia, in coordination with its OPEC+ allies, has pledged to cut its combined crude and petroleum exports by 300,000 barrels a day through year-end and to deepen the curbs by another 200,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of next year.

The pledge on export cuts comes on top of voluntary output curbs of 500,000 barrels a day from March 2023 through 2024.