North African countries’ links to Russian oil exports continues to make headlines, amid the west’s punitive sanctions in retaliation against the Putin government, and a continuing armed Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia continued to produce nearly 4 million barrels a day by the end of April, reports US outlet Bloomberg, thanks to “friendly coasts,” such as Morocco.
“As the ultimate destinations of cargoes loading in late January became apparent, flows to China rose to new post-invasion highs, and remained close to those levels in February. Historical patterns suggest that most of the vessels currently identified as ‘Unknown Asia’ destinations and heading for the Suez Canal will end up in India, while those loaded onto very large crude carriers off the north coast of Morocco or, more recently, in the Atlantic Ocean, will head to China,” reveals the report, issued on May 2.
Bloomberg indicated that “ship-to-ship transfer operations into very large crude carriers have shifted to the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean waters off the Spanish north African city of Ceuta, as they did last summer.”
“The Aframax tankers Nurkez and Crius transferred their cargoes into VLCCs in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands last week,” points out the report, adding: “At least 62 cargoes, or 44.7 million barrels, have been transferred between ships in those two locations and off the Greek coast near Kalamata since the start of the year.”
Officially, Turkey remain Russia’s only Mediterranean customer. Exports to Turkey rose to 140,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to April 28, recovering nearly two-thirds of the previous week’s drop, as both countries continue their oil exchanges despite ample international blockades.
Leila Benali, Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development had said that “Morocco’s imports of Russian energy materials, most notably gas, do not exceed 10%.”
Benali also pointed out, during her intervention on Tuesday in the House of Councillors that “Morocco’s consumption of oil materials is around 0.2% of the global market,” which coincides with “the passage of organized shipments of Russian oil through the northern Moroccan coasts.”
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