Vitol will stop buying Russian oil this year

Dutch Energy and Commodity Trade The company will also not enter into any new deals with Russian oil and oil products, the source said.

Vitol declined to comment, short of confirming the accuracy of the Bloomberg article that previously reported the news.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia announced a ban on Russian oil supplies.

Large companies, including Shell, Total Energy and Neste have also stopped buying Russian oil or have said they will by the end of 2022, and a broader embargo is in effect as banks, traders, shippers and insurance companies try to avoid Western financial sanctions.

As Russian oil has become toxic to many buyers, benchmark Urals oil is trading at an increasingly wide discount on the global market. It now costs $34 a barrel less than Brent oil.

The International Energy Agency estimated on Wednesday that Russian oil supplies will fall by 1.5 million barrels a day in April and could fall by as much as 3 million barrels a day from May as buyers turn their backs on it.

“While some buyers, especially in Asia, have increased their purchases of Russian barrels at a significant discount, traditional buyers are reducing volumes,” the agency said in a statement. “At the moment, there are no signs of an increase in shipments to China.”

Vitol’s revenue almost doubled last year to $279 billion. like a global oil demand recovered after the economy reopened after the pandemic. The company sold 7.6 million barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products a day last year, according to its website.

This is more than Russia’s daily crude oil exports, which the IEA estimates at about 4.7 million barrels in 2021. Of these, about 2.4 million barrels per day came from Europe.

But there are signs that the European Union could be next abandon Russian oil. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the bloc was considering an oil embargo as part of a new round of sanctions.

The cumulative impact of this widening embargo could be rising oil prices around the world as buyers struggle to replace supplies. According to the IEA, Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of crude oil after Saudi Arabia and accounted for 14% of global supplies last year.

The price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, soared to briefly pass $139 a barrel — a 14-year high — but has since dropped to around $107.
coordinated release of 240 million barrels of United States and IEA member countries could help lower prices and compensate for cuts in Russian oil supplies.

— Chris Liakos contributed to this article.

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