BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30. In February 2024, Russia's oil exports dropped by 140,000 b/d compared to the previous month, reaching 7.6 mb/d, Trend reports.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this led to a slight decrease of 1 percent in commercial revenues, totaling $15.7 billion ($15.84 billion in January 2024).
Although crude export volumes decreased, higher prices for exported products partly balanced this out, the agency noted.
Prices for all types of crude oil increased compared to the previous month and remained higher than the G7 price limit. However, product prices, except for naphtha, were lower than this limit, the IEA pointed out. Despite the recent change in oil export duties, which lowered government revenue, fiscal revenues still rose in February due to the rise in international crude prices.
Meanwhile, in February, the price of Urals crude oil went up by more than $4 per barrel to reach an average of $66.2 per barrel. ESPO crude oil prices also increased, rising by $2.90 per barrel to $76.52 per barrel. Meanwhile, North Sea Dated saw a rise of $3.64 per barrel. This caused the price difference between Urals and North Sea Dated to decrease by about $0.60 per barrel, while the difference between ESPO and North Sea Dated widened by $0.80 per barrel to -$7.38 per barrel.
However, the gap between ESPO and Dubai M1 narrowed to -$4.35 per barrel due to higher demand for light sweet crude oil. The difference in prices compared to Dubai M1 for Urals crude oil delivered to India's west coast also decreased to -$1.03 per barrel, making it less competitive. According to initial data from Kpler, Urals crude oil exports to India dropped from an average of 1.2 million barrels per day in both December and January to 1.0 million barrels per day in February.