Europe is succeeding in diversifying its crude purchases ahead of the upcoming sanctions on Moscow, as its imports grew last month even as the share of Russian barrels shrank.

Crude and condensate arrivals in the continent -- excluding Turkey -- surged in September to more than 8.46 million barrels a day, the highest monthly volume since January 2020, according to data from Vortexa Ltd. 

Russian remains the top supplier of crude to Europe. However, the share of imports from the nation slumped last month to just 21%, down from an average of 34% in 2021. 

Europe imported about 1.78m barrels a day of Russian crude in September, a modest gain from the 1.69m barrels a day in the previous month when shipments plunged to the lowest since at least the start of 2016, Vortexa data shows. At the same time, Europe’s imports of non-Russian crude barrels have steadily climbed this year to the most in data since 2016.

The bulk of the elevated cargo arrivals in Europe were driven by higher flows from Africa, which accounted for 37% of the imports in September. Libya lead the surge in shipments from the region, rising to the highest in a year. Arrivals from the Middle East were the highest since May 2019, while flows from the US were the lowest since January.