MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Russia’s Ust-Luga port cut its oil loadings by half of its capacity in January to a four-year low partly due to technical issues on Transneft’s pipeline system, according to traders.
Low loadings from the Baltic Sea port, one of the country’s main exporting gateways, will add to Russian crude and fuel export problems which have been compounded by Western sanctions, drone attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s energy facilities as well as high interest rates.
Scheduled oil loadings from the Ust-Luga terminal in January amount to just 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 1.5 million metric tons, including 0.2 million tons of oil carried over from December, when the port loaded 565,000 bpd, or 2.4 million tons, the traders said.
The maximum volume of oil shipments from Ust-Luga is about 700,000 bpd, or 3 million tons per month, according to loading schedules for recent years, meaning that currently the port is loading at half capacity.
January Ust-Luga exports will likely be the lowest from the port since 2021, according to traders and data on LSEG Workspace.
Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which transports crude to the ports, did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The sources said the decline in oil loadings from Ust-Luga started in mid-December, shortly after the suspension of supply via the Druzhba pipeline due to a technical issue. Oil supply via Druzhba to Belarus has been below plan this month, traders said.
Druzhba pipeline and the Baltic system pipeline are both connected to Transneft’s large pumping station in Bryansk region where Reuters sources had said there was a technical issue last month.
Reuters was unable to confirm the nature of the issues.
“Until the end of January, the volume of oil pumped to Ust-Luga is very low, one cargo is shipped every few days, and shipments from Primorsk increased from December,” one of the traders said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
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