Asia overtakes Europe for first time in volume of Russian oil purchases

"Asia overtook Europe as the largest buyer of Russian oil for the first time last month, and the gap will widen in May," said Kpler. Combined, Russian oil shipments to Asia's two biggest customers, India and China, rose to a record high in April, largely due to increased purchases from India, according to analyst Jane Xie. "Although deliveries this month are likely to be slightly lower, they will still fall just short of last month's record," she added.

Illustration photo. Photo: AP

In addition, according to Kpler analysts, as of May 26, about 57 million barrels of Urals oil and 7.3 million barrels of ESPO Far East oil were sold, compared with 19 million barrels of Urals oil and 5.7 million barrels of ESPO oil sold at the end of February.

As Bloomberg writes, a record amount of Russian oil is sitting on tankers, most of it bound for India and China as other countries restrict imports due to the Ukraine conflict. These countries have bought millions of barrels from Russia because of preferential prices, according to experts. Tankers have to make longer trips from Russia’s western ports to Asia instead of Europe, with a one-way trip to China typically taking about two months./.