Four years into war, Russia's energy revenues drop but oil keeps flowing

Energy revenues have fallen 27 percent since pre-invasion levels

FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians cross a road in front of the headquarters of Lukoil in Moscow, Russia, Jan 29, 2026. REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov/File Photo

The money Russia earned from exporting oil and gas dropped over the last 12 months, even as the country's oil exports increased in volume, according to data released on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Russia relies heavily on energy revenues to support its war in Ukraine - a link that has led Western countries to impose increasingly strict sanctions on Russian fuel, seeking to weaken the country's military effort.

An analysis published by the non-profit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that Russia's revenues from oil, gas, coal and refined product exports totalled 193 billion euros in the 12-month period ended Feb 24, 2026, down by 27 percent from the comparable period pre-invasion.

BY THE NUMBERS

While Russia's gas exports have collapsed since 2022, sanctions have so far not dented Russia's oil export volumes - but, rather, forced Moscow to sell oil at lower prices.

Russia's revenues from crude exports in the last 12 months decreased by 18 percent, year-on-year, CREA said. At the same time, crude export volumes remained 6 percent above pre-invasion levels, at 215 million tonnes.

CONTEXT

In response to Western sanctions, Moscow has redirected most of its seaborne crude to China, India and Turkey, often relying on a “shadow fleet” of ageing, uninsured tankers to circumvent Western sanctions.

But tougher restrictions could hit Russian fuel exports harder this year.

US President Donald Trump has made diversification away from Russian crude a condition of a trade deal with India.

The European Union is discussing a sweeping ban on any business that supports Russia's seaborne crude exports, going far beyond previous sanctions. The bloc failed to pass those sanctions on Monday, as Hungary vetoed them owing to a dispute over a damaged Ukrainian oil pipeline.

Russia exports over a third of its oil in Western tankers with the help of Western shipping services. The planned EU ban would end that practice, which mostly supplies India and China, and render obsolete a price cap on Russian oil purchases that G7 countries have tried to enforce.