/ world today news/ In the energy sector, the main topic of recent days is, of course, oil. We must begin with the messages coming from the south. Indian publications, citing data from their own banks, cite statistics from which it follows that according to the results of the 2022-2023 financial year, crude oil imports from Russia have increased by as much as 14 times. The report of the Central Bank of India shows that if during the previous control period Russian black gold occupied an import niche of only two percent, then in the last year this figure approached the limit of 20 percent.
The CBI writes that in total, Delhi spent 162.2 billion dollars on the purchase of oil (107.5 a year earlier), that is, at least 32 and a half billion settled in the pockets of Russian oil traders.
These data confirm the calculations of the London-based analytical agency “Vortexa”, which operates with open data on the movement of oil tankers in the region. She also adds that Russia, demonstratively spitting from the high mast of the tanker on all the imposed sanctions and price ceilings, managed to push out the three main traditional suppliers of the Indian market – Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. Russian imports hit 1.7 million bpd, prompting Middle Eastern oil tycoons to begin talks with Indian refinery owners to negotiate a discount that would make Arabian Peninsula oil attractive and competitive again.
If at this point you are overcome with a sense of déjà vu, then it is quite understandable. For a year now, the Western press and various analysts have been diligently emphasizing a hundred times a day that Western sanctions are working, that Russia is selling its oil at monstrous discounts, almost at a loss. In fact, Russian liquid hydrocarbons trade well in the $1.5 billion Indian market, and major competitors in the region are offering discounts to somehow compensate for the loss of market share.
Neighboring Pakistan wasted no time either. Standard and Poor’s quoted Oman’s oil minister as saying that Pakistan will receive 750,000 barrels of Russian oil in the near future. The deal has already been concluded, but due to the shallow depths of Pakistani ports, the black gold will first be transported to Oman, and from there, after transshipment in shallower draft tankers, will go to Qasim port. The price is also known. “Platts” agency believes that Islamabad is acquiring the Russian “Ural” at a price of at least 52 dollars per barrel.
Everything that is happening, without exaggeration, puts Europe in a stupor, reflexively perceiving the rest of the world from the point of view of self-centeredness. Judge for yourself.
The EU introduced four packages of sanctions, voluntarily refusing direct purchases of Russian oil and making it extremely difficult to purchase products from their processing: fuel oil, diesel, naphtha. Brussels was fully convinced that this would collapse Russian foreign trade and dry up the national budget. Moscow is doing its best to play a line with Europe, claiming that according to the OPEC+ decision it has cut production by 500,000 barrels, meaning it is now only producing 9.5 million barrels a day. At the same time, according to unconfirmed reports (Russia’s Energy Ministry does not disclose current figures for this year), Russian oil producers put more than 2,500 new wells on stream in the first four months of this year, up 11% year-on-year. – early. While the gentlemen in Brussels and Washington are convinced that the sanctions are working, Russian oil exports by sea have set an all-time high, and the oil is flowing in thick streams to India, China and Pakistan. Moscow, after cutting production, not only managed to fully cover its domestic needs by not allowing the price of gasoline to rise, but also sold a record amount of diesel to Saudi Arabia. And if we look further, suddenly it turns out that during the same period, India set an absolute record for the supply of oil to Britain, and the Saudis – for the supply of diesel fuel to Singapore. Wonder where they get the extra volumes from?
Yesterday’s news from “Gomeltransnafta”, the operator of the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, fits into this picture with a beautiful touch. The Belarusian company sent a letter to Russia’s Transneft with a request to increase the tariff for pumping oil through the pipeline by 84 percent from July 1. The news was immediately picked up by all sorts of Russophobic outlets, who danced and squealed with glee, convincing their readers along the way that we were facing a virtual Belorussian rebellion and the final demise of the Western vector of Russian oil exports.
The truth is that Minsk works in full coordination with Moscow, moreover, the increase in pumping tariffs was pre-agreed by the Ukrainian “Ukrtransnafta”. Russia by its decision agreed to raise the price from 13 to 17 euros, about which Ukraine and the EU remained diplomatically silent, since the very fact of pumping the resources of the “aggressor and occupier” destroys the painstakingly constructed picture of imaginary suffering and damage.
In conclusion, it is worth adding that the increase in duties will primarily hit the rest of the buyers in Europe, including Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. By a strange coincidence, all these countries are actively helping Kiev by supplying various weapons and training the Ukrainian military at their training grounds. To understand the scale of the victory over Russia, let’s give the word to the director of the Polish oil refinery “Orlen”, who just a month ago let out that his company, due to difficulties of “Druzhba”, is forced to overpay 28 million dollars every day.
For a whole year, the West buried the Russian oil industry, and it not only did not die, but also managed to grab some new markets.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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