Overview
- Four-week average flows from Russian ports fell to about 3.58 million barrels per day to Nov. 2, roughly 190,000 bpd lower than the prior period.
- Chinese refiners, including Sinopec, PetroChina and many private “teapots,” cut or halted purchases, with Rystad estimating about 400,000 bpd of Russian supply to China affected.
- Exporters kept loading tankers while refiners hesitated to receive cargoes, lifting floating storage of Russian crude to roughly 380 million barrels, up about 8% since early September.
- Russia’s weekly oil export value averaged around $1.15 billion in the week to Nov. 2, a drop of about 27% from the previous period.
- Separate OPEC+ moves — a small December increase and a pause on first‑quarter hikes — were read as a potential oversupply signal, nudging Brent to $64.74 and WTI to $60.91.