- Russian energy producer Gazprom Neft saw its bunker sales drop by 40.8% last year as the market was hit by the combined effect of IMO 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The company sold a total of 1.77 million mt of bunker fuel in 2020, according to its annual results, down from 2.99 million mt the previous year.
- Its bunker sales at Russian ports sank by 44.9% to 1.47 million mt, while sales in other countries slipped by 6.3% to 300,000 mt.
A recent news article published in the Ship and Bunker reveals that Russian energy producer Gazprom Neft saw its bunker sales.
Problems of Russian bunker suppliers
The decline shows the scale of the problem that hit Russian bunker suppliers last year.
While HSFO was the dominant bunker fuel, Russia’s abundant supplies of the product made its prices competitive with the bunker hubs.
Demand Moves Away
But IMO 2020 saw VLSFO take over as the shipping industry’s preferred bunker fuel, and Russia’s more limited supplies of middle distillates as well as higher taxes made it harder to compete.
Ship & Bunker pricing shows St Petersburg‘s VLSFO has ranged from a $17.50/mt discount to a $3/mt premium to Rotterdam‘s levels so far this year, compared to an HSFO discount ranging from $14-38/mt in the same period of 2019.
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic came as a second impact to the Russian market taking away the cruise industry traffic that is a significant part of sales at ports in the Baltic.
Russian market sources have told Ship & Bunker demand was down by as much as 75% at some ports for parts of last year.
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Source: Ship and Bunker
