MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) - Russia's refiners, keen to
take advantage of good margins, have increased output and
companies have exported more refined products despite an EU
embargo and oil price cap, data cited by two industry sources
showed, and two traders said.
What Moscow calls its "special military operation" in
Ukraine has led to an EU embargo on Russian oil products and a
G7 oil price cap, both of which both took effect on Feb. 5.
In the months since the embargo, Russia increased its fuel
supplies to Turkey, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin
America, diversifying its fuel sales.
Last year, Russian oil refineries massively cut runs in
March and April during maintenance, as well as because of market
uncertainty. This year, Russian refiners are confident they can
place the barrels, the traders said.
In March, when seasonal spring maintenance on refinery
plants normally begins, Russia's oil refinery throughput jumped
nearly 10% year-on-year to 24.1 million tonnes from 22.0 million
tonnes last year, according to the data and Reuters
calculations.
In April, Russia's oil refinery runs are expected to exceed
23 million tonnes, based on operative daily data seen by the
sources, and to rise by some 17% from the same period last year,
Reuters calculations showed.
Overall, in January-March this year, Russian refinery runs
were at nearly 70 million tonnes, up more than 1% from the same
period of last year, Reuters calculations based on the sources'
data showed.
In April several refiners decided to delay routine work on
the plants for a couple of months to cash in on good margins,
the sources said.
"We decided to postpone works as much as infrastructure
allows as sales are good," - a source with an independent
Russian oil refinery told Reuters on condition of anonymity as
the source is not authorised to speak to the press.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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