Russia could boost oil shipments to China via ports on Baltic, Black seas by rerouting from other directions, implementing new projects

MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Russia could boost oil shipments to China through the seaports on the Baltic Sea and Black Sea, respectively, by rerouting supplies from other directions, or by implementing new projects, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

"There could be new shipments via our seaports by rerouting from other markets, as well as by implementing new projects that would allow us to boost the volume of shipments to global markets, including China," Novak said.

"You know that we are developing a number of new fields in the Arctic zone, and a pipeline is under construction to Sever Bay at Taimyr. These are the promising areas that are under consideration today in order to ship energy resources from the region to the Asia-Pacific region in the future," Novak said.

Russia sees prospects to boost exports of its oil to China through the seaports on the Baltic and Black Seas, Deputy Energy Minister Sergei Mochalnikov said during a meeting of the Russia-China intergovernmental commission on energy.

"When the pipeline routes to China are fully loaded, we see prospects for boosting supplies of Russian oil to China via maritime shipping, with loading at the seaports on the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, and we are ready to support companies in order to implement the initiative," Mochalnikov said.

The Argus pricing agency said that Russia rerouted supplies to Asian markets after the European Union banned imports of its oil. The bulk of the Urals crude goes to India, but about 200,000 barrels per day go to China, more than three times the 60,000 bpd typical for 2022. Urals has become a more attractive, low-cost alternative to sour Middle Eastern crudes for Chinese companies. In China, Urals competes with the Arab Light and Iranian Light crudes, Argus said. In addition, China receives Russian ESPO oil from the eastern port of Kozmino.