Morocco tops Russia fuel suppliers with 40,000 barrels a day
Kpler data shows Morocco was Russia's top seaborne fuel supplier in October, with over 40,000 barrels a day, while the Russian report did not disclose the shipments' origin or the Moroccan ports used.
Morocco supplied Russia with more than 40,000 barrels per day of petroleum products by sea in October, out of a total of 54,000 bpd imported by Moscow that month, making it the top supplier of fuel to Russia, according to Alyaoum24, citing data from Kpler, an international company that tracks shipping and energy trade, based on a report published by the Russian newspaper Kommersant on Thursday evening.
Al3omk confirmed the same figures, noting that shipments from Morocco accounted for more than 74% of Russia's total seaborne petroleum product imports in October, with the rest coming from Turkey, which became the second-largest seaborne fuel supplier to the Russian market.
What do the numbers say about the trend in Russian imports?
Russia's seaborne petroleum product imports rose 25% from September, but remained below summer levels, when they reached about 89,000 bpd in July, then 153,000 bpd in August. Between July and September, Moscow had also imported petroleum products from India, South Korea and Egypt, before October's seaborne shipments became concentrated on Morocco and Turkey alone.
| Month | Volume |
|---|---|
| July | 89 |
| August | 153 |
| October (total seaborne imports) | 54 |
Why is Russia increasingly relying on imports?
The rise in Russia's fuel imports comes amid difficulties facing the domestic refining industry: Russian refinery throughput fell by about 1.5 million bpd between May and September 2026 due to repeated Ukrainian attacks on refineries and energy facilities, which pushed gasoline output below domestic consumption. Russian refineries nonetheless began recovering in the second half of October, with throughput reaching about five million bpd by the end of the month, against a monthly average of about 4.3 million bpd.
What did Russian experts and officials say?
Sergey Tereshkin, general director of Open Oil Market, said the 54,000 bpd in seaborne imports equal just over 200,000 tonnes a month, while Russia's annual gasoline consumption alone is about 40 million tonnes, adding that higher transport costs for imported fuel are one of the main obstacles to expanding these operations. The Russian Ministry of Energy said imported gasoline was not a decisive factor in setting domestic prices, while Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak had said the need to import gasoline would continue at least until the end of 2026.
Where do these Moroccan shipments actually come from?
Morocco topping the list of exporting countries does not mean these products were made or refined in the Kingdom: the Russian report did not identify the fuel's origin, the exporting companies, or the Moroccan ports the shipments left from, and did not rule out that they were re-exports of products previously imported from international markets. This matters because Morocco itself relies on imported petroleum products to meet its own domestic needs, at a time when diesel prices remain high on the local market.
Pending any clarification from the Moroccan authorities concerned, this data remains one indicator of the shifts under way in the map of international petroleum product trade, as Russia comes under pressure to secure its fuel needs amid repeated attacks on its oil facilities.