MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will increase oil exports through its western ports in March by almost 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) against the monthly plan to 2.15 million bpd, and market participants expect a further increase in exports amid ongoing drone attacks on Russian refineries.
On a daily basis shipments will increase by 10% compared to the initial plan for March, Reuters calculations showed.
Russian oil refineries have been suffering from a series of drone attacks from Ukraine including most recent attacks on Rosneft refineries over the weekend.
The supply of Urals in the Baltic in March this month will increase due to the appearance of two additional cargoes from Rosneft and Tatneft, according to Reuters sources.
In Novorossiisk additional tanker positions were added by Rosneft and Lukoil, the sources said.
Market participants believe that the growth in Russia's oil exports may continue. "Given the events of the weekend, there may be more additional cargoes," one of the sources said.
On Saturday morning, a fire broke out at the Rosneft-owned Syzran oil refinery after a drone attack.
On Sunday, due to a drone attack, a fire occurred at a private Slavyansky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region.
Last week, Rosneft's Ryazan oil refinery of Rosneft and Lukoil's Nizhny Novgorod oil refinery suffered from drone attacks.