Russian oil exports last week were the highest since the invasion, but the sanctioned shipments are traveling huge distances to reach buyers

• Russian oil exports are rebounding to pre-invasion levels, but cargoes are traveling on far longer delivery routes.
• Russian crude exports jumped to about 4 million barrels a day in the first week of April, the highest levels all year, per Bloomberg.

Oil shipments out of Russian ports have hit their highest volume since the war in Ukraine began, but the distance that cargoes must travel to make deliveries has ballooned.

Through the first week of April, Russian crude exports jumped to roughly 4 million barrels a day — the highest level seen in 2022, according to Bloomberg. The rebound in exports comes after levels consistently fell each week following Russia's invasion.

Export revenue and volume suggest that Russia is shrugging off some of its wartime constraints, but Western sanctions have pushed it to find alternative destinations for shipments.

The US has ceased purchases of Russian oil, and the UK is expected to wean off of it by 2023. According to Bloomberg, more exports are making their way to Asia, where buyers are snapping up discounted prices.

One reason for this is that Moscow's usual export markets in Europe are evaporating, as countries self-sanction from Russian energy.

Now, per Bloomberg, there's been a spike in Russian crude shipments being sent to the Mediterranean and Asia, and ships are taking longer trade routes.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's government has called on the world's leading energy traders to stop handling Russian crude, saying revenues are being put toward funding the country's attack .

"The fact is that traders and trading and they are helping Russia to receive this blood money," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser told the FT.