Almost 90 thousand tons of crude oil was delivered from Russia to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka received a cargo of Russian crude oil in the amount of 89 thousand tons. On the arrival of a tanker with fuel at the port on Friday, May 27, TASS reports.

“Russian oil should go to the refinery (refinery) of Ceylon Petroleum Corp. in Sapugaskanda tomorrow. This is a private purchase, ”added an agency source associated with the country’s Ministry of Energy.

Siberian Light oil will be used at refineries for processing into kerosene. Earlier, on March 20, the plant stopped working due to the lack of necessary materials, but now it will be able to produce up to 1,000 tons of kerosene daily for two weeks.

It is noted that the government of Sri Lanka also turned to the administration of the Russian Federation through the state line with the issue of energy supplies against the backdrop of an acute shortage of raw materials. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the economic condition of the republic. The fall in the income of the tourism industry resulted in a shortage of foreign exchange reserves. Since the beginning of April, Sri Lanka has been under a austerity regime: in the context of the crisis, it was decided to take a course towards reducing energy imports.

Earlier it became known that Asia for the first time overtook Europe in terms of purchases of Russian oil. Over the past week, tankers have carried between 74 million and 79 million barrels of oil, almost three times more than in the period leading up to February 24. As analyst Igor Yushkov noted, this situation on the market is due to the fact that the East is not afraid of image costs in cooperation with the Russian Federation, which, in turn, offers a 30% discount on energy resources.

European countries, according to the expert, began to buy less oil, including due to sanctions pressure on Russia, as well as informal pressure, since a number of European traders refuse to buy black gold from Russia due to reports of some of its toxicity.

On May 4, Bloomberg reported that India wants to buy Russian oil for less than $70 a barrel amid continued cooperation. According to the agency, since the beginning of the Russian special operation to protect Donbass, Indian oil companies have purchased over 40 million barrels of Russian oil, which is 20% more than the total volume of deliveries to this country last year.

On the same day, the Financial Times reported that China’s private refineries increased their purchases of Russian oil after Western countries began imposing sanctions on energy supplies from Russia. It was noted that Beijing remains “in the shadows” and at the same time receives Russian energy resources, despite the actions of the United States and its partners.

Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen noted that China and India did not go along with the demands of Western countries and refused to impose anti-Russian sanctions due to rapid economic development.

Western countries imposed anti-Russian sanctions after Vladimir Putin announced on February 24 an operation to protect civilians in the Donbass. Moscow explained that its tasks include the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. The decision was made against the backdrop of an aggravation in mid-February of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.