Italy imports more Russian oil to feed refineries despite EU embargo plan

Italy imports more Russian oil to feed refineries despite EU embargo plan

Italy has increased its imports of Russian crude despite EU efforts to end ties to Russian energy in an unintended consequence of western sanctions against the Kremlin.

Russia has exported about 450,000 barrels per day of crude to Italy this month, more than four times as much as in February and the most since 2013, according to Kpler, a commodity data company. As a result, Italy is set to overtake the Netherlands as the EU’s largest import hub for seaborne Russian crude. Two-thirds of those exports are destined for Augusta, a port in Sicily near the Russian-controlled ISAB refinery.

The refinery, which is owned by Moscow-based company Lukoil, used to secure a variety of supplies worldwide thanks to credit lines from European banks. Although Lukoil is not under sanctions, lenders have stopped providing financing after the EU imposed sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, forcing the refinery to rely solely on supplies from its parent company, according to government officials, bankers and union leaders with knowledge of the shipments.

“It’s paradoxical, the EU wanted to penalise Russian energy imports but here it’s actually been incentivised by the sanctions,” said Alessandro Tripoli, secretary-general of the FEMCA CISL union for the Syracuse and