Russia August Primorsk Oil Exports to Reach Five-Year Low

Russia plans to ship less than 1
million barrels a day of Urals crude from the port of Primorsk
for a third month, with shipments set to drop to the lowest in
more than five years, a preliminary loading program showed.

The Baltic Sea port will handle 38 cargoes of 100,000
metric tons each in August, or 898,516 barrels a day, according
to a schedule obtained by Bloomberg News. That’s 0.8 percent
less than July. Prior to June, Primorsk had loaded more than 1
million barrels a day every month since at least March 2008,
when Bloomberg began tracking the data.

Ust-Luga, also on the Baltic, will ship 18 cargoes of
100,000 tons each, or 425,613 barrels a day, according to the
program. That’s unchanged from July, after one cargo was dropped
this month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter
who asked not to be identified because the information is
confidential.

Exports from Novorossiysk on the Black Sea will fall to
3.01 million tons in August, or 711,719 barrels a day. The
August schedule includes three 80,000-ton cargoes of Siberian
Light grade and 26 consignments of Urals ranging from 80,000 to
145,000 tons.

One 140,000-ton cargo was dropped this month from
Novorossiysk, according to the two people. Total Novorossiysk
crude shipments will fall 3.3 percent in August.

Next month’s program includes one unassigned slot of
100,000 tons at Primorsk.

Loading programs are monthly schedules of crude shipments
compiled by field operators to allow buyers and sellers to plan
their supply and trading activities.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at
jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at
sev@bloomberg.net

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