The UK continues to import record volumes of refined Russian oil coming through India, China and Turkey. This was reported by the British newspaper The Guardian with reference to government data analysed by the environmental portal Desmog.
According to The Guardian, in 2021 the volume of imports of refined oil to the UK was £434.2 million, and in 2023 – already £2.2 billion, while it is Russia that is the largest supplier of crude oil to China and India, and Turkey became one of the largest importers of Russian oil after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the publication said.
The newspaper recalled that allies of the Ukrainian government had officially promised to refuse supplies of Russian oil and gas, and London banned imports of Russian oil products from 5 December 2022. Nevertheless, they continue to flow into the UK due to “loopholes” in the legislation. Oil is no longer considered Russian if it is refined in another country, and this, in turn, makes it possible to circumvent the bans, The Guardian explained.
It is specified that in 2021 the UK imported £402.2m worth of refined oil from India, in 2022 this amount rose to £1.82bn and in 2023 to £1.5bn. Oil imports from China have also increased dramatically – more than 20 times since 2021. It was £30.2m in 2021, £395.1m in 2022 and £663.9m in 2023. Even supplies from Turkey have increased from £1.8m in 2021 to £60.3m in 2023.
“Millions of barrels of fuel made from Russian oil continue to flow into the UK. Last year alone, this deal generated more than £100 million for the Kremlin,” Global Witness senior investigator Leila Stanley told the newspaper.
According to official UK government figures, direct oil imports from Russia have fallen to zero in 2023. But in 2023, the UK imported about 5.2 million barrels of petroleum products made from Russian crude, with jet fuel accounting for the majority of imports at 4.6 barrels, the newspaper pointed out.
The UK is not the only country buying petroleum products made from Russian crude: in 2023, the EU imported 130 million barrels from refineries processing Russian crude. According to rough estimates by The Guardian, this brought Moscow about €1.1bn in tax revenues.
Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev “thanked” the EU for the growth of the Russian economy.
