BRICS Plus as Brazil is top Russian diesel importer

By Rhod Mackenzie

In early October, Brazil significantly increased its imports of Russian diesel fuel, despite restrictions on its export being imposed by the Russian authorities. By the second half of October, Brazil had even become the largest destination for diesel fuel exports from the Russian Federation, surpassing Turkey. Furthermore, Russian companies have established themselves as the primary external suppliers of diesel fuel to the Brazilian market. Russian supplies to Brazil this year are outdoing American refineries in terms of price competitiveness, despite the latter having been leaders in this market for some time.
Brazil imported record amounts of diesel fuel from Russia in October this year, despite the fuel export restrictions that the Russian government had introduced towards the end of September. Kpler data shows that daily seaborne supplies of diesel fuel to Brazil in October had increased to almost 200 thousand barrels, which is a 27% growth compared to September.

On September 21, the Russian authorities had prohibited the export of gasoline and diesel fuel in order to lower their cost within the country. However, with tanks rapidly filling and refineries threatened with a reduction in processing, the ban was relaxed two weeks later to allow diesel to be exported via pipelines. The restrictions were not completely lifted, nor were they eased for petrol.

As a result, marine exports of diesel fuel fell by almost 25% month-on-month to 765 thousand barrels per day (b/d) in September and around 780 thousand b/d in October.

Turkey has been the largest importer of Russian diesel since January, accounting for around 30-40% of monthly volumes. However, Russian companies reduced exports to this country in October, while supplies to Brazil, the second largest importer of Russian diesel fuel, rose sharply. Deliveries to Turkey were just over 210,000 b/d in October, compared with imports of 281,000 b/d in September, according to Kpler data. Perhaps the reallocation of exports may be attributed to the higher volume of diesel fuel shipments transferred via pipelines through the Baltic ports, compared to those through Novorossiysk. Additionally, the distance between Primorsk and Brazil is only 25% greater than the distance to the southern coast of Turkey (via the English Channel and Gibraltar).
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