WSJ: Russia sharply increased exports of petroleum products to North African countries
In recent months, imports of petroleum products from Russia by Tunisia, Morocco and other Maghreb (North African) countries have sharply increased. This was reported on February 25 by the American edition of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
At the same time, these countries increased the export of petroleum products to the EU, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to The Wall Street Journal, North African countries have sharply increased imports of diesel fuel and other petroleum products from Russia after the European Union imposed an embargo and other sanctions on their supply.
Since the Russian Federation found itself cut off from the European market, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Algeria “became insatiable buyers” of Russian refined oil products.
In particular, the Moroccan authorities purchased about 2021 thousand barrels of diesel in 600, and in January 2023 alone this figure amounted to 2 million barrels. Tunisia practically did not purchase Russian oil products in 2021, but in recent months there has been a sharply increased flow of imports from the Russian Federation of gasoline, naphtha, diesel fuel and gas oil, which are used for the production of plastics and chemicals.
“In January 2023, Tunisia purchased 2,8 million barrels of Russian oil products; in February, this figure is estimated to increase to 3,1 million barrels,” the publication writes.
According to analysts interviewed by WSJ, we are talking about too large volumes of imported petroleum products for the needs of the Maghreb. At the same time, North African countries increased their exports of petroleum products to Europe without expanding their oil refining volumes. In the EU, this fact raises concerns in connection with the alleged circumvention of sanctions against Russia, the American publication notes.
The head of the petroleum research department at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Andreas Economou, noted in a WSJ commentary that the process of re-exporting sanctioned petroleum products is very difficult to track.
As PolitNavigator reported , EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell stated that Russia has not suffered as much from sanctions as Western officials would like.
Russian version :: Read in English WSJ: Russia has sharply increased its exports of petroleum products to North African countries.