MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. As early as May 2022, oil supplies from Russia to Asian countries exceeded exports to Europe for the first time, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak wrote in an article for the Energy Policy magazine.

"Already in May 2022, oil supplies from Russia to Asian countries for the first time exceeded the volumes sent to Europe," he wrote.

According to the data provided by Novak, in 2022, oil exports to friendly countries grew by 76%, exports of oil products - by 20%, exports of pipeline gas and LNG - by 8%.

"The existing energy infrastructure to Asian countries, including the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean and Power of Siberia oil and gas pipelines, as well as the Yamal LNG project, has largely made it possible to quickly redirect significant amounts of energy resources," the Deputy Prime Minister added.

Over the past year and a half due to illegitimate actions by Western countries the Russian energy sector significantly accelerated the turn to the East, where the fastest growing and most promising energy markets in the world are located, Novak said.

"At the same time, systematic work to diversify the export of Russian energy resources has been going on for more than a year. Today we see that such a policy has fully justified itself," he said.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, almost 40 million tons of oil and oil products were redirected from Western markets to Eastern markets in 2022.