Russian oil exports: mapping out the future.

With talk regarding a potential ban on Russian energy imports reignited in the EU, after the recent developments, it's worth taking a look on Russia's crude oil export destinations. In a recent report, shipbroker noted that "2021 was overall another negative year for global crude oil trade. Total loadings in the 12 months of 2021 were down -2.3 percent y-o-y to 1,989 million tonnes, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. This followed a -6.1 percent y-o-y decline in global shipments in 2020, a -1.2 percent y-o-y decline in 2019 and a -0.6 percent y-o-y decline in 2018.

There has been something of a rebound in Jan-Feb 2022, but it just reflects the depth of the contraction seen at this time last year, at the peak of the Covid lockdowns". According to the shipbroker, "in Jan-Feb 2022, global crude loading reached...