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Europe may face shortage of petroleum products by spring — experts

It is reported that the situation will also be challenging for Russian refineries because they will need to export diesel fuel and fuel oil while simultaneously producing enough gasoline to meet domestic needs

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The global fleet is likely to fail to cope with the rerouting of petroleum products to Asia after the EU’s embargo on Russian supplies beginning on February 5, 2023, and Europe may face a deficit of supply as early as by spring, BCS said in its research.

"The embargo on petroleum products: much graver consequences are conceivable. Petroleum products require more small-sized tankers to carry various grades of diesel fuel, fuel oil, straight-run gasoline, and so on. The global fleet will almost certainly fail to cope with the redirection of all supplies to Asia," experts said.

The European market highly depends on Russian diesel, straight-run gasoline and fuel with a high sulfur content, BCS said.

The situation will also be challenging for Russian refineries because they will need to export diesel fuel and fuel oil while simultaneously producing enough gasoline to meet domestic needs.

"We believe Russian exports may be shifted to oil and drop petroleum products because of simpler logistics," experts added.

The market may also start devising larger and more complex "gray" schemes to make deliveries to Europe in defiance of any bans, they said.