Winter winds are freezing Russia's crude oil shipments to China

• Winter winds and freezing temperatures have slowed Russian crude exports, Bloomberg reported.
• The icy storms and a Ukrainian drone strike last week have helped knock shipments to an 8-week low.

An icy blast of winter weather has stalled Russia's oil exports from a key Pacific port supplying Chinese buyers, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The winter winds and freezing temperatures have reduced Russia's weekly crude flows, with 3.09 million barrels a day of oil shipped from Russian ports in the four weeks through January 28, down by about 250,000 barrels a day from the three weeks through January 21. The weekly average fell by 120,000 barrels a day.

The wintry storms, coupled with loading disruptions caused by a Ukrainian drone strike last week, combined to force Russian crude exports to hit an 8-week low of 2.8 million barrels a day.

While the chaos chilled activity at some ports, it was partly offset by a record 11 tankers loaded at Russia's Primorsk port (the largest oil-loading port in the Baltic Sea).

Asian countries like China and India have emerged as big importers of Russian oil after the West levied heavy sanctions on the Kremlin following the invasion of Ukraine, making them crucial crude trading partners. But the shipments that do make it out of ports like Primorsk still have more hurdles to cross in the Red Sea, where Yemen's Houthi rebels continue to attack commercial ships passing through the key trading lane.

While the Houthis have guaranteed Russian ships safe passage through the key waterway, ships carrying cargo of Urals crude and Russian naphtha have been attacked in the past few months.

A reduction in shipping ability follows on the heels of Russia agreeing to cut oil output as a part of the OPEC+ decision to suck oil supply out of the market to boost prices. The Kremlin has said it will cut about 500,000 barrels a day below the May-June average for the first quarter of the year.