Russia’s war chest is being hammered by the double-whammy of a slump in oil shipments and a continuing decline in prices, sending the value of crude exports to the lowest since January 2023.

Four-week average crude flows fell in the period to December 14, driven by the biggest week-on-week slump in flows since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Offloading cargoes is proving even more of a challenge, with crude at sea jumping 40 per cent since the end of August and at least 20 cargoes loaded at the country’s western ports in September and October still undelivered.

The slide in Moscow’s revenues coincides with the US piling the diplomatic pressure on Ukraine and its European allies to strike a peace deal.Credit: AP

Numerous tankers have disappeared from tracking systems in the Riau archipelago, north-east of Singapore, a favoured location for transferring sanctioned Iranian barrels between vessels that’s growing in popularity among carriers of Moscow’s crude. Tracks suggest that at least six Russian cargo switches have taken place there since November, with another six fully laden tankers disappearing in the area so far this month.

The slide in Moscow’s revenues coincides with the US piling the diplomatic pressure on Ukraine and its European allies to strike a peace deal, even as the Kremlin keeps up its bombardment of its neighbour’s gas and power infrastructure. Kyiv in turn continues to strike Russia’s oil assets, extending its attacks to production platforms in the Caspian Sea, and hitting more tankers hauling the country’s oil.

Moscow shipped 3.61 million barrels a day in the four weeks to December 14, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s down by about 70,000 from the........

© The Sydney Morning Herald