Asian buyers of Russian oil, gas and coal

 

As the Ukraine-Russia crisis intensifies and threatens to spark conflict in Europe, analysts warn there may be implications for Asia, where several countries depend on Russia for oil, gas and coal. 

Any invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops could trigger sanctions and reprisals that would disrupt the movement of fuels and impact energy security affecting buyers even thousands of miles away, analysts warned.

Below are details on how Asian countries rely on oil, gas and coal from Russia. 

CHINA 

China accounts for 15.4 percent of Russia's total crude oil exports, with only Saudi Arabia selling it more. China's Russian crude oil buying averaged 1.59 million barrels per day (bpd) last year, or 15.5 percent of its total imports. 

China receives about 40 percent of this via the 4,070-km (2,540-mile) East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. 

Russia is also China's No. 3 gas supplier. China accounted for 6.7 percent of Russian natural gas exports in 2021. Russian exports to China totalled 16.5 billion cubic metres (bcm), or about 12.07 million tonnes in 2021, meeting roughly 5 percent of China's demand. 

Russia was also China’s No. 2 coal supplier in 2021. China imported 15.25 million tonnes, or 4.72 percent of its total coal imports, from Russia in 2021, customs data showed. 

SOUTH KOREA 

Russia was South Korea's fourth-largest crude oil supplier in 2021 after Saudi Arabia, the United States and Kuwait. South Korea imported about 7.92 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia last year, worth about $4.27 billion, data from the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) showed. 

South Korea also imported 2.87 million tonnes of gas from Russia last year, the KITA data showed, making it the country's sixth-largest supplier. 

Russia was the second-largest coal exporter to South Korea in 2021 after Australia, shipping 21.95 million tonnes worth about $2.56 billion and accounting for 17.5 percent of South Korea’s total coal imports, the data showed. 

JAPAN 

Russia was Japan’s second-biggest supplier of thermal coal in 2021, making up 12.48 percent of its thermal coal imports, Japanese customs data showed. 

Russia was Japan’s fifth-biggest supplier of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2021, accounting for 3.63 percent and 8.84 percent of its total imports, respectively. 

Japan accounted for 4.1 percent of Russia's crude oil exports and 7.2 percent of its natural gas exports. 

VIETNAM 

Russia was the third-largest coal exporter to Vietnam in 2021, after Australia and Indonesia. Its coal exports to Vietnam totalled 3.59 million tonnes in 2021, accounting for 9.9 percent of Vietnam’s total coal imports, Vietnam customs data showed. 

The country did not import crude oil from Russia in 2021, but Vietnam’s state oil firm PetroVietnam has a 49per cent stake in an oil joint venture (Rusvietpetro) with Zarubezhneft in Russia’s Nenets Autonomous Region, which had produc ed 30 million tonnes of crude oil as of mid-2021 since its establishment in 2008. 

INDIA 

India imported 1.8 million tonnes of thermal coal from Russia in 2021, down from 2.5 million in 2020, data from Iman Resources showed. 

Russia's share in India's thermal coal imports fell to 1.3 percent in 2021 from 1.6 percent. 

India imported 43,400 bpd oil from Russia in 2021, about 1 percent of overall its imports.

 

India accounts for about 0.2 percent Russia's natural gas exports. GAIL (India) Ltd has a 20-year deal with Gazprom to buy 2.5 million tonnes of LNG a year which started in 2018.