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Oil exports from Russia's western ports may rise in October as domestic refineries will increase runs only marginally despite coming out of the peak maintenance season, trading sources said.
Traders had been largely expecting oil loadings from the ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk to fall in October versus September due to an anticipated rise in domestic refining.
Two Russian industry sources said several plants will finish maintenance next month, but others will decrease throughput after running at capacity to compensate for refinery outages across Russia in previous months.
It means that Russia's overall refinery throughput will be largely unchanged versus September at around 5 million bpd, leaving more oil for exports, the sources said.
"I expect a small rise in Russia's oil exports in October. I doubt that all repairs will be completed on time," an industry source said.
Some 3.9 million tons or some 0.9 million bpd of refining capacity will be offline in Russia this month, up 34 per cent from August.
Russian authorities have yet to release provisional export volumes for Baltic and Black Sea ports for October, traders added.
September exports are set to rise by 4.5 per cent from August to 2.04 million bpd after Russia added cargoes last week. -Reuters