Russia's weekly seaborne crude export value hits wartime high of $2.76bn
Russia's seaborne crude exports were worth $2.76bn in the week to October 25, the most in a single week since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on October 27.
The new high clears the previous one, $2.75bn in the week to September 27, by only $10mn, and it is a gross value of the cargoes rather than money paid to the state. Federal oil and gas revenues fell 17.2% y/y to RUB5.47 trillion ($67.7bn) in the first nine months of 2026, the lowest for the period since 2020 on Ministry of Finance data, as payments to refiners under the fuel damper and a stronger ruble ate into the gain from higher prices.
About 37 tankers loaded 26.93mn barrels of Russian crude in the latest week, or 3.85mn barrels a day (b/d), up from 21.87mn barrels on 31 ships the week before. Volumes rebounded after shipments resumed at Primorsk, the main Baltic oil port, which had stopped loading for several days. The weekly value rose by about $430mn as the jump in volumes more than offset a lower Urals price, while the price of ESPO crude shipped from the Pacific rose for an eighth consecutive week.
On the less volatile four-week measure, shipments slipped by 30,000 b/d to 3.55mn b/d in the four weeks to October 25, the lowest in five weeks, and the average weekly value held at about $2.61bn. In the week to September 27, when values first reached a wartime high, Russia loaded 3.99mn b/d, and the four-week average stood at 3.71mn b/d.
| Russian seaborne crude exports | Week to Sep 27 | Week to Oct 18 | Week to Oct 25 |
| Tankers loaded | 37 | 31 | 37 |
| Volume, mn barrels | 27.90 | 21.87 | 26.93 |
| Volume, mn b/d | 3.99 | 3.12 | 3.85 |
| Gross value, $bn | 2.75 | about 2.33 | 2.76 |
| Four-week average, mn b/d | 3.71 | 3.58 | 3.55 |
Source: Bloomberg tanker tracking; October 18 value derived from the reported $430mn weekly rise
China and India remain by far the largest buyers, though many recent cargoes show only an intermediate destination such as Suez, Port Sudan or Singapore until the tankers are well under way.
Oil and gas revenues came to RUB452.4bn ($5.6bn) in September, down 22.3% y/y, and the nine-month total compares with RUB6.61 trillion ($81.7bn) a year earlier and RUB8.33 trillion ($103bn) in the same period of 2024.
Russia's federal oil and gas revenues, cumulative from the start of each year, RUB bn; 2026 to end-September. Source: Russian Ministry of Finance; IntelliNews Lambda
Diesel cargoes have also resumed to Turkey and Brazil since Moscow partially lifted its export ban on October 10 and the US Treasury licensed transactions in Russian diesel until April 7, 2027, adding a second export stream to the crude flow.
This article was produced with the help of IntelliNews Lambda analytical tool
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