May 13, 2016 [OPIS] - Russia is reasserting its role as dominant supplier of crude oil to German refineries through a larger share in the country's import slate in the first quarter, at the expense of Norwegian and U.K. producers, provisional data from the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) indicate.
Europe’s largest economy bought 22.34 million mt (164 million bbl) of crude oil from abroad, which was a marginal 0.4% lower than in the prior-year quarter.
Russia ramped up deliveries by almost one tenth year on year to 8.26 million mt, giving it a 37% share in Germany’s import portfolio and a clear lead — on the very top — over rival suppliers, despite E.U. sanctions. This compared with a 35% slice in the first two months and 35.7% on average in 2015.
State-controlled producer Rosneft is cementing its presence in Germany through larger holdings in key refineries at Schwedt, Karlsruhe and in Bavaria, as part of a swap with BP, thus securing future offtakes.
The advance of Russian oil was in stark contrast with the sharp decline in arrivals from Britain (2.65 million mt, down 13.2% on-year) and Norway (2.62 million mt, down 19.1%). The latter lagged behind U.K. suppliers for the third straight month despite a 6.1% rise in Norwegian output.
Narrowing the gap to other lower-ranking sources was a nearly two-fifths jump in deliveries from Kazakhstan to 2.19 million mt, keeping it in fourth place, ahead of its close rival Azerbaijan (1.51 million mt, down 3.4%), which had briefly toppled its position in January.
Almost quadrupling on-year were supplies from Iraq, to 711,000 mt, reflective of recovering production and exports. “Iraq is striving to sustain production at all-time highs in order to fund a costly battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to pull the country back from the brink of financial collapse,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in the May edition of its market report.
Arrivals into Germany also showed noticeable gains from Turkmenistan (152,000 mt, after none a year ago), Mexico (more than doubling to 239,000 mt), Kuwait (116,000 mt, versus 3,000 mt) and Denmark (nearly quadrupling to 142,000 mt).
Nigeria fell back behind Caspian sources to sixth position, given a nearly 22% drop in supplies to 1.36 million mt, highlighting the struggle with unplanned interruptions.
In February, Shell’s Nigerian arm SPDC had declared force majeure on Forcados crude oil liftings, because a spill from a subsea crude oil export pipeline at the terminal disrupted production. Subsequently, though outside the reporting period, SPDC declared force majeure on Bonny Light on May 10, due to the closure of the Nembe Creek Trunk line for repairs, Shell reported Wednesday.
Germany’s oil purchases from Saudi Arabia (69,000 mt) were a shadow of the prior year’s 344,000 mt and from Egypt nearly halved to 343,000 mt.
Decreases were also noticeable in trade with the Netherlands (92,000 mt, down from 230,000 mt), Angola (40,000 mt, versus 129,000 mt) and Algeria (675,000 mt, down 8.3%).
The official statistics include 76,000 mt of U.S.-origin material, more than the prior-year quarter’s 46,000 mt, though none in March.
The average crude oil import price for delivery to the German border averaged in the first three months 227.90 euro/mt ($259.3/mt), down from 359.95 euro/mt a year ago, according to BAFA.
