In 2023, Western countries will continue to impose restrictions on Russian energy resources.
Photo: REUTERS
THE SHOOTING IN THE FOOT CONTINUES
Happy new year, new sanctions!
In 2023, Western countries will continue to impose restrictions on Russian energy resources. They started almost a month ago with oil. Since December 5, 2022, the European Union has been banned from buying Russian oil, which is shipped by sea. Also on December 5, the G7 countries (US, UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan) and Australia and the EU that joined them set a maximum price for Russian oil at $60. per barrel https://www.kp. ru/daily /27479.5/4686971/. Since that day, companies from these countries are prohibited from:
– Buy “black gold” from Russia at a price above $60 per barrel.
– Transportation of Russian oil, which is sold above the limit.
– Carry out maintenance on tankers and ensure the transportation of Russian oil if it is sold over the limit (including to third countries).
DIESEL CRISIS
Similar rules for Russian oil products will come into force in February. These are gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, diesel, etc. The maximum price for them has not yet been announced. But one thing is already clear: from February 5, EU countries will stop buying Russian oil products that are shipped by sea.
Therefore, both Western countries and Russia are beginning to prepare for the restrictions in advance.
First of all, according to the US agency Bloomberg, before the entry into force of the European embargo, Russia plans to increase the supply of petroleum products by sea. According to the agency, in January, diesel shipments in Russian ports on the Black and Baltic Seas may grow by 8%.
And second, just before the New Year, the US Treasury released a preliminary instruction on applying sanctions to Russian oil products. And he explained that if oil products undergo “deep processing” outside of Russia, they will no longer be subject to restrictions. Deep processing is, for example, the production of kerosene or the same diesel fuel.
Don’t kid yourself: Americans don’t care about Russian exporters. And about its European partners, already exhausted by sanctions against the Russian Federation. The fact is that an embargo on Russian oil products could hit Europe very hard. More than half of the diesel fuel comes to the EU from Russia.
– The European Union is trying to increase the supply of diesel from the US and the Middle East. But rising costs are inevitable. There is a risk that a sharp increase in the cost of diesel fuel will increase inflation and slow down the development of the EU economy, writes Japan’s main business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
Therefore, the United States decided to ease the sanctions against the European Union… Oh, sorry, against our country. So, if diesel fuel from Russia is brought to India conditionally, “deeply processed” into new fuel and sent to Germany, then this is quite acceptable. Or, by the way, you can send fuel not to conditional India, but to a very specific Croatia or Bulgaria. An exception has been made for these two EU countries: Croats will be able to receive Russian oil and oil products by sea until the end of 2023, Bulgarians – until the end of 2024.
It seems we know which EU countries will soon start actively building oil refineries…
