Russian December Refinery Runs Below Expectations Amid Weather

Russian average daily refinery runs stood at 5.543mbpd during 1-27 December, a person with knowledge of the matter said, little changed from a similar period in November as Black Sea storms hindered refineries to raise crude processing rates as planned.

• Russia’s average daily refinery runs during 21-27 December stood at 5.45mbpd, the person said, down by 200kbpd on the week largely due to lower crude processing at Rosneft’s Tuapse plant in southern Russia. The storms also halted crude loadings at the CPC oil terminal located nearby.
• Kpler previously estimated that daily refinery runs would jump to 5.8mbpd in December.
• Russian facilities had to reduce processing rates in the Black Sea region in late November and late December due to storms.