Britain: Heavy accusations about Russian oil – How it “helps” Moscow in the war against Kiev – Economic Courier

The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war in Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries that process the Kremlin’s fossil fuels, the Guardian notes in a related article, which also presents a series of government data analyzed by environmental news site Desmog.

Russia: Sharply increased oil exports after Ukrainian attacks on its refineries

According to the analysis, imports of refined oil from India, China and Turkey reached 2.2 billion pounds in 2023, a value corresponding to the record of the previous year (2022), and by 434.2 million. pounds increased from 2021 levels.

Russia is the largest supplier of crude oil to India and China, while Turkey has become one of the largest importers of Russian oil since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It is noted that recently Russia has been increasingly targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with only a few large power plants yet to be damaged or destroyed.

In response to the 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s allies pledged to divest from Russian oil and gas. The UK has officially banned imports of Russian oil products from 5 December 2022. However, a loophole in the law has allowed Russian oil to continue to flow into the country.

Since Russian oil is refined in another country, it is no longer considered to come from Russia, thereby bypassing any restrictions on its movement. As a result, Russian oil is sold to allied countries for processing before being exported to the UK.

The NGO Global Witness called this process a “washing” that undermines Ukraine’s resistance to Russia.

China and India customer

The value of refined oil exported from India to the UK has increased dramatically since Russia invaded in 2022. In 2021, the UK imported £402.2 million worth of refined oil from the country, which rose to 1.82 billion pounds in 2022 and set to 1.5 billion pounds in 2023.

Refined oil imports from China have increased more than 20-fold since 2021 – from 30.2 million pounds this year, to 395.1 million pounds in 2022 and 663.9 million pounds in 2023. The value of refined oil imports from Turkey, meanwhile, has risen from just £1.8m in 2021 to £60.3m in 2023.

Lela Stanley, senior researcher at Global Witness, said: “Millions of barrels of fuel produced from Russian oil continue to flow into the UK. Last year alone, this trade was worth over £100 million to the Kremlin. Make no mistake: until the government closes this loophole, Britain is helping Russia pay for the war in Ukraine.

“The good news? We can fix this. The UK should act now to ban the import of fuel from Russian oil and show that its support for Ukraine is sincere.”

Global Witness estimated that throughout 2023, around 5.2 million barrels of refined petroleum products produced from Russian crude oil were imported into the UK, with jet fuel accounting for the largest share of imports (4.6 million barrels). It has been estimated that fuel linked to Russia has been used on one in 20 UK flights.

British government records show direct oil imports from Russia fell from £1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022 to zero next year.

Increase in imports from “petro-states”

This has led to an increase in fossil fuel imports by autocratic states that have oil. The UK spent £19.3 billion on oil and gas imports from Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by March 2023 – a 60% increase on compared to the previous year.

In addition to sourcing fossil fuels from the above countries, the UK and EU buy refined Russian oil through India, China and Turkey.

Global Witness found that the EU imported 130 million barrels from refineries processing Russian crude in 2023. The organization estimated that these purchases would likely have contributed €1.1 billion to the Kremlin in tax revenue.

Russia is now China’s largest supplier of crude oil, with trade volume set to increase by 24% in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Oil and gas purchases from China and India helped stabilize Russia’s economy, which shrank by just 2.1% in 2022 – well short of the 12% forecast.

India has never had an issue with buying Russian oil. In November, the country’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said his country should have been thanked for “softening oil markets” by buying and selling Russian oil. “As a result, we really managed global inflation. So people should say ‘thank you'”, he said.

Russia is India’s top oil supplier, contributing 40% of its oil imports. The country imported 1.76 million barrels of Russian oil per day on average from April to September 2023, more than double the amount from the previous year.