Who buys Russian petroleum products and how are the supply routes changing?

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Oil and Gas Information Agency (Tyumen Region) on the change in the exports structure of Russian petroleum products in 2022-2026.

Alexey Belogoryev explains the mechanism of restructuring:

"The key change occurred in 2023 after the introduction of the embargo by the EU. In 2021-2022, the European Union accounted for about 55% of all Russian exports of petroleum products, which was the main traditional destination. Since then, they have dropped to zero," he said. "More precisely, international ship tracking systems like Platts still record shipments in EU waters (about 100 thousand b/d in 2025, mainly from Cyprus and Greece), but this is probably transshipment from ship to ship and refueling with bunker fuel – Russian oil products do not cross the EU customs border."

By the end of 2025, exports of petroleum products from Russia to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan increased by 15.5% (to 7,275 million tons). The main recipients are Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The total increase in supplies amounted to 1 million tons, more than half of which accounted for liquefied petroleum gas (530 thousand tons). In January 2026, shipments increased sharply by another 44% compared to December due to inventory accumulation at refineries and lower tariffs for transit through Kazakhstan.

India is called the largest buyer not only of crude oil, but also of petroleum products. Turkey is a key hub. The countries of North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia) are a new direction for Russia, which has hardly been used before.

Before the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, Russia depended on only three markets – China, India, and Turkey, which is quite risky: under pressure from the United States, India was already reducing purchases.

"In fact, the geography of export diversification is even wider," Alexey Belogoryev emphasizes. – We can also mention such new buyers as Ghana, Togo, Benin, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Vietnam and even Curaçao and Djibouti. There are also significant shipments to Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Israel, etc. In total, certain Russian oil products are shipped to about 50 countries in all corners of the world."

Alexey Belogoryev believes that the demand for Russian products will not decrease, especially in Asia and Africa. The negative impact of sanctions is limited due to the specifics of logistics - many shipments go through a "shadow fleet" or transshipment. However, the main unknown now is the volume of the Russian supply.

"Everything here comes down to the increased restrictions on exports and unscheduled shutdowns of refineries in recent years," the expert concludes.