According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday,  data provided by Vortexa shows that Western Europe is continuing to buy up Russian diesel-type fuels, despite a rapidly approaching embargo on the nation’s petroleum products.

Based on the data, in the first ten days of December almost half of the waterborne diesel imports to the European Union and England came from Russian shipping facilities. For three straight months, data shows that imports of Russian fuels have been increasing.

During the reporting period, the second largest supplier was Saudi Arabia, which supplied 300,000 barrels of diesel type fuels. By contrast Russia supplied 750,000 barrels per day in the reporting period.

Analysts say it appears the region wants to stock up on the fuel ahead of the coming embargo on seaborne Russian petroleum products which will come into force in February, and that is producing a definite surge in imports of Russian diesel-like fuels. Although the shipments by other providers are growing, Russian remains the largest supplier of diesel fuel for Western Europe. Experts note, given its market share it would appear Western Europe would have trouble finding a replacement for the lost Russian supplies.

Over the reporting period, the EU and UK imported roughly 16 million barrels of diesel-type fuel imports. Experts are predicting if current trends continue, December’s total imports to the region may set the second-highest record since at least early 2016.