KYIV: A barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s Black Sea oil export facilities, as well as storms and severe ice conditions in the Baltic Sea slowed Russian oil exports this month, data showed on Friday.
The United States on Thursday issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea, in a bid to stabilize global energy markets roiled by the Iran war.
However, the drone attacks and bad weather mean the easing of the US restrictions may not provide a significant and immediate boost to Russia’s oil exports.
Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline via Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia remain halted following what Kyiv said was an attack by Moscow on the pipeline on January 27.
According to ship-tracking data from LSEG, Russia’s total oil exports on March 1-12 declined by 14 percent from the same period last month to 3.6 million barrels per day.
