May 9, 2022 [TankTerminals.com] – Lars van Wageningen, Operations Manager at Insights Global and TankTerminals.com, was interviewed last Friday May 6, 2022 on NRC (a newspaper based in The Netherlands).

 
The news’ headline was: Exciting Times For Those Who Work With Big Machines. This is the news extract of Lars’ analysis on the current events shaping our industry. Original source – (Language: Dutch).

—Start of News Extract—

Now that the supply of Russian oil is no longer a certainty, oil traders also seem to be taking action.

Since the build-up of troops around the Ukrainian border and the current invasion, an above-average amount of Russian diesel has already been exported to the Netherlands.

But now that it is becoming increasingly clear that an oil boycott can no longer be ruled out, Russian diesel imports are skyrocketing, said Lars van Wageningen, operational manager at market researcher Insights Global.

While the share of Russian diesel was normally around 20%, in April almost half of Dutch diesel imports came from Russia.

“Our hypothesis is that the large traders want to import as much Russian diesel as quickly as possible, while it is still a possibility,” says Van Wageningen. “You may wonder how desirable that is, but oil is not currently subject to sanctions.”

If Russian diesel stops coming in, it will have to come from somewhere else. Other export partners include the US, the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia.

Before these new supply routes run smoothly, there may be temporary shortages. There is also not much reserve stock to absorb such shortages; due to the high prices, the levels of storage tanks in the ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp are at an all-time low.

Van Wageningen: “With these high prices, it is not interesting to store oil at the moment, so as few stocks as possible are kept.”

—End of News Extract—