MOSCOW/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Russia is ramping up shipments of oil products to Indonesia as Moscow seeks to expand new markets for its exports in the wake of Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, market sources said and LSEG data showed on Thursday.
Since a full European Union embargo on imports of Russian oil products came into effect in February 2023, Russia has redirected fuel exports to Asia, Africa and South America.
Indonesia has historically imported most of its oil products from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
According to shipping data, around 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil were exported from the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga to Indonesia between January and March.
Two cargoes with about 50,000 tons of naphtha were also shipped to Indonesia from the Russian Arctic port of Arkhangelsk this year, sources and LSEG data showed.
By comparison, Indonesia imported around 58,200 tons of naphtha and 100,000 tons of fuel oil from Russia for the whole of 2024.
Additionally, in March a vessel called the Savitri delivered a cargo of 33,000 tons of diesel from the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse to Indonesia’s Karimun port. And another tanker, the Lunar Tide, could deliver nearly 60,000 tons of diesel from Tuapse to Karimun this month, shipping data shows.
The buyers of those cargoes are unknown.
Karimun is typically used as a storage hub for the Southeast Asian region, with some traders storing their diesel cargoes there and blending them for subsequent deliveries into other regional destinations, trade sources said.
Most of these cargoes cannot be resold back into Indonesia due to regulatory requirements, one of the sources added.
So far, a total of 105,000 tons of diesel have been exported from Karimun this year, with those volumes headed to countries including East Timor, Myanmar and Singapore, shiptracking data from Kpler showed.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow, Trixie Yap in Singapore; Editing by Joe Bavier)
