FT report: Swiss-based companies keep Russian refined oil flowing

An oil tanker moored at Novorossiysk, Russia, on October 11, 2022. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Global energy traders Vitol and Gunvor, which both have their headquarters in Switzerland, are still major buyers of refined oil from Russia over a year after both firms pledged to reduce their business with Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.

A Financial TimesreportExternal link published on Tuesday uses export records filed with Russian customs in the first four months of 2023 to show that both companies were among the top-ten buyers of refined products, such as petrol and diesel.

Geneva-headquartered Gunvor was the eighth-largest buyer by value, shipping one million tonnes of petroleum products worth about $540 million (CHF484 million), according to the data seen by the FT.

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Vitol, which has its main bases in London and Geneva, was the tenth-largest buyer, moving about 600,000 tonnes worth about $400 million, the data showed.

Both companies confirmed they were regular buyers of Russian refined fuels but disputed the accuracy of the data, the FT said.

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Trading in Russian refined fuels is not prohibited by western sanctions and has even been encouraged by Washington to limit supply disruptions, if traders comply with western restrictions imposed since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Vitol and Gunvor have stopped dealing in Russian crude oil.

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In all, 50 companies exported a combined $16 billion worth of refined petroleum from Russia during the first four months of this year, the data shows.

The customs records show that Gunvor and Vitol are the only western-owned companies still among the top-ten buyers of Russian refined petroleum. The other eight largest buyers are either Russian-controlled traders or recently established entities in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong or Singapore.

Litasco, the trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil, heads the ranking. The company moved most of its operations from Geneva to Dubai last year and traded more than $3 billion of Russian refined fuels between January and April, according to the data.