OREANDA-NEWS   In the last week of August, daily shipments of Russian oil by sea soared by 21 percent compared to the previous period, to 455,000 tons per day, which was the highest in the summer. Kommersant writes about this with reference to the review of the Center for Price Indices (CIC).

Shipments through the port of Primorsk increased the most, to 180,000 tons per day (plus 72 percent). Exports from the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin also increased by 42 percent.

Analysts point out that the surge in shipments from Baltic ports to China is due to the possibility of navigating the ship through the Northern Sea Route during summer navigation.

According to the shipping tracking service, 28 percent of Russian exports in the last week of summer were shipped to China, 14 percent to Turkey. Slightly more than half of the shipments left the ports without specifying their destination, but the Central Research Center is confident that 80 percent of these volumes will be sent to India.

At the same time, discounts on Russian oil are gradually increasing, which is attributed to the threat of increased sanctions pressure from the United States. First of all, Indian buyers demand discounts, because they have the opportunity to choose among suppliers.

The experts interviewed by the publication do not believe that the reduction of the price ceiling from 60 to 47.6 dollars per barrel, undertaken by the European Union and a number of other countries, will significantly affect exports. The US refusal to join the threshold review removes the main threat to suppliers.

Another reason for the increase in sea exports with falling discounts may be problems with domestic processing, which is associated with strikes on refineries. Due to the temporary shutdown of a number of enterprises in Russia, additional volumes of raw materials are accumulating and being exported.