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Ukraine Strikes on Refineries Push Russian Crude Exports to Near-Record Levels, Bloomberg Analysis Shows

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Russia's crude oil shipments are at near record volumes as a decline in production due to Ukraine's aggressive targeting of its oil refineries is forcing the country to push more barrels into the global markets, according to a Bloomberg analysis published Tuesday.

Russia shipped an average 3.83 million barrels a day of crude over the four weeks to June 14, unchanged from the week prior when exports hits their highest levels for the year, the report said, citing tanker-movements data.

Year-to-date, the country's crude flows average 3.49 million b/d, which is higher than the annual averages in any year since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The rise in crude exports is amid the continued targeting of Russia's refineries by Kyiv. Two processing plants in the Tatarstan region, over 800 kilometers east of Moscow, were targeted by Ukraine late last week, while the Moscow refinery was hit earlier this week. Ukraine has so far targeted six Russian refineries in June after record attacks in May, the report said.

The attacks have forced Russia to potentially redirect crude that cannot be refined locally to the export markets, the report said.

has reached out to the Russian Energy Ministry for a comment.

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