(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. announced on Tuesday that it will ban imports of diesel from Russia as a response to the country's invasion of Ukraine, raising the question of where the alternative supplies might come from.
In 2020, the country received about 11.6 million tons of diesel-type fuels from all destinations with almost a third of that coming from Russia, government data show. The ban is to be phased in over the rest of the year.
On the face of it, the task shouldn't be insurmountable since there are plenty of alternative suppliers. After Russia, the Netherlands was the U.K.'s biggest external supplier of diesel in 2020. But cargoes also come from further afield, such as the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
But there are a lot of uncertainties too. Which other countries might impose similar bans of their own, and where would that leave the supply of Russian diesel into the global marketplace? Will the country's crude exports also get choked off, limiting oil refineries' capacity to make the fuel elsewhere in the world?
The diesel market in Europe is already pricing as if supply is running out, so it doesn't appear as if there are loads of cargoes to spare.
As well as imports, the country also produced 18.3 million tons of diesel-type fuels at its own refineries, according to the UKPIA, a lobby group.
See also: Europe Diesel Prices Scream Shortages After Ukraine Invasion
Soaring prices in Europe have made it profitable to ship fuel to the continent from Asia, according to three people involved in the diesel market. That doesn't necessarily mean huge quantities will swerve to meet new demand -- some of the fuel will already have been earmarked for specific buyers under so-called term contracts.
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