Russia: third largest fuel exporter
Russia ranks as the third largest fuel exporter in the world, according to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Its external sales of these products were 211,509 million dollars in 2021, an increase of 49% year-on-year, but a fall of 4.2% over its 2019 benchmark.
The basket of goods includes mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous materials, and mineral waxes.
Above Russia in this indicator are the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Within its result for last year, Russia exported oil for a value of 110,119 million dollars, followed by petroleum oils (excluding crude oil, 69,937 million), coal (17,560 million), gas (8,815 million) and electric power ( 1,327 million).
All of these results stand out in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has been harshly criticized by much of the international community.
Fuel exporter
According to the WTO, it has been noted that Russia remains structurally highly dependent on hydrocarbons, as oil and gas dominate the country’s merchandise exports and generate a substantial part of the government’s budget revenue.
The Russian economy is also characterized by enormous energy intensity.
The country’s key priorities are to continue to diversify the economy to make it less dependent on its abundant oil and gas resources and to reduce the energy intensity of the economy.
In particular, crude oil exports increased significantly in volume between 2015 and 2019 and in value between 2015 and 2018, and decreased from 2019 to 2020.
Regarding natural gas, there was also a substantial increase in production between 2015 and 2019, followed by a decrease in 2020.
An important fact that has recently occurred has been the expansion of the production of liquefied natural gas.
Gas exports increased sharply between 2015 and 2019 and, in the case of natural gas, decreased in 2020.
For both oil and gas, the relative importance of Asia as a destination for the Russian Federation’s exports is increasing.
