February 17, 2016 [OPIS] - European imports of ultra-low-sulfur diesel in 2015 grew 19.5% year on year, surpassing just over 44.3 million tons, trade data shows.
For the second consecutive year, Russia was the biggest exporter of diesel to the 28 member countries, supplying 18.9 million tons, or 43% of the region’s total.
The U.S. was the second-biggest supplier, at 12.6 million tons, according to Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics agency.
Two years after two new Saudi Arabian refineries started exporting ULSD to European specifications, imports are beginning to edge out traditional suppliers.
For 2015, Saudi imports totaled 3.9 million tons, equivalent to about six or seven cargoes of the largest product tankers that ship the distillate west to Europe from the Middle East Gulf.
Most of the cargoes are heading to France, data shows, unsurprising given oil major Total is a minority joint-venture partner at Saudi Arabia’s SATORP refinery at Jubail, and takes many of the cargoes.
France took over 2 million tons of Saudi Arabian ULSD in 2015, while Spain, the U.K. and the Netherlands imported the remainder, according to Eurostat.
Market share for India and the U.S. appears to be declining the most. The U.S. import tally for 2015 is 4% less than the prior year. The country’s share of the market is now 29%, compared with 36% the prior year. India cargoes totaled 2.3 million tons, up from nearly 1.6 million tons in 2014 but still lower than the 2.8 million tons seen in 2013 and 3.7 million tons the year before, as the Reliance export refinery didn’t have to compete with Saudi Arabia and Russia for business in Europe.
By contrast, the EU’s reliance on Russia for ULSD is rising, with the federation supplying 24% more in 2015 than the previous year.
Russia has nearly doubled its exports to Europe over two years, reflecting its program to upgrade refineries. In 2013 Russian imports of ULSD totaled just under 9.6 million tons.
