Russian revenues from fossil fuel exports have significantly declined from their peak in March 2022. However, despite the drop in exports, various sanctions and bans, many countries still import fossil fuels from Russia, amounting to millions of dollars daily.
Revenue from fossil fuels exported to the EU has fallen by more than 90 percent from its peak, yet in 2023 alone, Union countries imported crude oil and natural gas worth over 18 billion dollars.
China Dominates
China remains the largest importer of Russian fossil fuels, with imports reaching 30 billion dollars by June 16, 2023. Since nearly 80 percent of China’s fuel imports are crude oil, Russia’s average daily revenue from Chinese fossil fuel imports fell from 210 million dollars in 2022 to 178 million dollars in 2023, mainly due to the decline in the price of Russian crude oil.
Following China are the countries of the European Union, which imported 18.4 billion dollars worth of fossil fuels in a 60/40 ratio of crude oil to natural gas. The only thing the EU does not import from Russia is coal, and that was as of August 2022.
After China and the EU bloc, India is the next largest importer of Russian fossil fuels, having increased its imports by more than ten times compared to pre-war levels with Ukraine.
Turkey is the second nation that imported Russian fossil fuels worth over 10 billion dollars in 2023, while every other country imported fuels from Russia this year worth less than 3 billion dollars.
Although crude oil is the main Russian fossil fuel export, Urals crude oil traded at a discount of 20 USD per barrel compared to Brent oil for most of 2023. Although this discount narrowed to about 16 USD after Russia announced further cuts in oil exports by 500,000 bpd (barrels per day), the price of Urals crude oil remains just 40 cents below the upper limit of 60 dollars set by the G7 and EU countries.
