Report: IEA head says Russian oil exports more stable than expected

MOSCOW, Jan 19 (PRIME) -- Russian oil exports appear to have been more resilient than predicted a year ago, International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol told Reuters on Thursday.

“Birol said Russian oil exports seemed to be more ‘resilient’ than predicted at the beginning of last year, but that they were correct in terms of ‘the direction of travel,” Reuters reported.

The IEA overestimated the impact of Western sanctions on Russian oil export volumes by a wide margin, saying oil markets could lose as much as 3 million barrels per day, Reuters added.

Birol also said that Russian oil exports “are declining now, as forecasted, and will decline further in the first quarter of this year and beyond.”

Earlier on Thursday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russian oil exports remain at the level of December 2022 in January.

End