Morocco becomes a key market for Russian diesel after sanctions: report

Morocco has become a key alternative market for Russian refined oil after the latest European Union sanctions against Moscow's petroleum products, reported Bloomberg Tuesday.

After banning imports of Russian crude oil last year, the European bloc further banned Russian refined petroleum products last month depriving Moscow of its biggest market.

Despite the ban, Moscow hit a record of 1.5 million barrels a day in the first 29 days of March. If that rate is maintained, this month will see the highest exports in data going back to the start of 2016, according to Bloomberg

Moscow is reportedly defeating the EU’s sanctions by offering deep discounts to buyers with no strong positions on Putin’s offence on Ukraine, like Morocco and Turkey.

Since the eruption of the Russian-Ukrainian war last February, Rabat has maintained a neutral position on the conflict preserving diplomatic ties with both Moscow and Kyeiv.

Moroccan imports of Russian diesel, which covered just 600,000 barrels during 2021, amounted to 2 million barrels only in January 2023, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. 

Rabat has also reportedly received 1.2 million additional barrels in February, according to the same source.

The Moroccan kingdom is not the only North African country benefiting from the Russian diesel deals. This trend was also observed in Tunisian imports.

In the last months, Tunisia has reportedly relied heavily on Russian fuels, including diesel, gasoline and naphtha. Last year, Tunis had no significant imports of Russian petroleum products.

However, observers noticed that increased imports to Tunisia and Morocco coincided with an uptick in their own refined-product exports.

Morocco, which has never recorded significant diesel exports, reportedly shipped last month 280,000 barrels of diesel to the Canary Islands.

Experts suspect that North African states, namely Rabat, are playing the middleman role to ease trade between Moscow and Europe by blending Russian cargoes with other oil products and re-export them to other states. That process disguises the ultimate origin of the products and complicates Western efforts to sanction Russia for its offence on Ukraine.

"The ministries in charge of oil in Morocco and Tunisia refrained from commenting", reported the Wall Street Journal on 25 February.

Morocco's comments on the controversy

On 2 March, the Moroccan government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas denied the reports, saying "whether for the current government or its predecessors, the import share of Russian diesel has always been around 9%."

However, the Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fettah admitted in mid-March that "the share of Russian diesel increased in January and February, to stand at 13%".

Meanwhile, Minister Fettah denied the 'circulated rumours' about the discounted price of Russian diesel at only 1,771 MAD (US$ 177) per ton. 

"From January 1 to February 27, the ton cost 9,522 MAD (US$ 952) while other imports of the same product from other countries traded at 10,138 MAD (US$ 1138) per ton, a difference of 6%", the minister told parliament.

Contacted by the TNA, no official from the Moroccan Ministry of Energy was available to articulate further on the issue.

Amid conflicting reports on Moroccan-Russian diesel trade, opposition parties have requested the appearance of Minister of Energy Transition Leila Benali before the Energy Commission of the House of Representatives to provide explanations on the  Russian imports Fiasco.

The main opposition's concern in the ongoing surge of fuel and diesel prices in the country despite reports on high and -relatively- cheap exports of Russian refined oil, which refutes the excuse of "the effects of the Russian-Ukranian on fuel trade" that the government gave last year. 

The Moroccan government has yet to approve the opposition's request to question the energy minister.