*Russia’s new core customers of India and China took a combined record of 4.14mn b/d for May as the country’s seaborne crude exports hit 3.74mn b/d, level with April 2022 as the highest post-Ukraine war figure. This comes despite Russia had announced that it would cut its production by 500,000 b/d from March (MEES, 9 June).

*Latest official Indian import stats for April show a fourth straight month of record crude imports from Russia. Volumes averaged 1.933mn b/d in April, and figures from data intelligence firm Kpler show they rose further to a new record of 2.06mn b/d for May (see chart). (CONTINUED - 902 WORDS)