Russia reduced its crude oil exports below four million barrels per day for the first time in six weeks after Ukraine altered its military strike strategy, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, August 4.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine shifted targets toward oil tankers in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, as well as fuel storage depots in western Russia. That shift gave Russian oil refineries a brief window in the second half of July to carry out repairs and increase processing, which cut the crude volume available for export.
Refinery Repair Window and Drone Strikes
Export levels could change again because Ukrainian drones targeted Russian refineries again last week. Rosneft's Ryazan refinery was hit shortly after restarting following a nearly two-month shutdown from a May attack.
Ukrainian drones also hit Lukoil's Volgograd refinery, which has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. Attacks also struck an industrial site in Ufa containing three Bashneft refineries and a Rosneft facility in Saratov.
Port Shipments and Tanker Counts
Shipments of crude oil from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk remained well below recent peak levels because Russian authorities had safety concerns. Deliveries from the Arctic port of Murmansk also fell sharply after a spike the previous week, with only one tanker leaving due to loading schedules.
In the week to August 2, 35 tankers loaded 24.61 million barrels of Russian crude oil, compared to 40 vessels carrying 29.47 million barrels the previous week. Daily average exports dropped to 3.52 million barrels per day from a revised 4.21 million barrels per day, with Novorossiysk operating at about half its recent peak.
Export Revenues and Fuel Crisis
Despite the weekly drop, average Russian oil exports since the start of the year reached 3.63 million barrels per day. That is 300,000 barrels per day higher than last year's average and above annual averages for every year since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Gross export value rose to $1.69 billion per week in the four weeks to August 2, up $60 million from the four-week period to July 26. Higher prices for Russian oil offset smaller physical volumes, with average Urals crude prices rising by nearly $6 per barrel.
Russian officials must balance exporting crude for foreign currency against refining it domestically for military, transport, and civilian fuel. Increased Ukrainian attacks caused a domestic fuel crisis, with Financial Times reporting at least 194 attacks from early 2026 to July, an elevenfold increase over last year. On August 3, reports showed Russian oil refining rates dropped to their lowest level since 2002.
