MOSCOW: Diesel cargoes for export during February on oil tankers from Russia’s Primorsk port currently total around 1.18 million metric tons, according to the port agent and OPIS Tanker Tracker data. At least 36 vessels have been chartered to haul diesel cargoes ranging from 22,000 to 40,000 tons from Primorsk in February to date, shipbroker reports show, and this tally may yet increase before the month ends. All shipments tracked from Primorsk are billed as 10-ppm ultra-low-sulfur diesel, according to data from shipbrokers and port agents. Still, it may be that some cargoes were misreported and were in fact high-sulfur gasoil. Included in this latest tally are two oil tankers with laycans that overlap adjacent months.
Exports of ultra-low-sulfur diesel from Primorsk were pegged at 1.36 million tons for January, according to preliminary loading lists. These initial lists showed some 39 cargoes were expected to load with diesel at the Russian Baltic port last month, with minimum cargo sizes of 30,000 tons. However, the final tally for January could have been close to 1.49 million tons, OPIS reported earlier this month. A preliminary loading schedule for February has not been seen. The loading program at Primorsk in November was seen at nearly 1.1 million tons, while approximately 1.3 million tons loaded during December.
