After the oil embargo and price cap: Russian oil exports collapse
Created: 12/22/2022, 4:03 p.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
The EU has had an embargo on Russian oil since December 5, as well as a price cap that is to be enforced worldwide.
Initial evaluations show that Russia's oil exports have now collapsed.
Moscow – From January 1, no more Russian oil should flow through a pipeline to Germany.
The federal government has assured that the supply of fuel at gas stations in eastern Germany will then continue to be secured - because this region is primarily supplied by the PCK refinery in Schwedt, which is dependent on Russian oil.
"We have given security of supply in the region," said Parliamentary State Secretary for Economic Affairs Michael Kellner (Greens) in Potsdam this week.
He referred to promised alternative oil supplies for Schwedt from Poland.
“We will continue to work to bring the numbers up.
There are also positive signals there.” In addition, oil is to come from Kazakhstan – how much is initially unclear.
There are no plans to release strategic oil reserves.
Embargo and price cap: Russian oil exports collapsed
Meanwhile, Russia needs to find new buyers for its oil.
And that is apparently not so easy for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Because: Since December 5, the oil embargo imposed by the EU states against Russia after the Russian army invaded Ukraine, as well as a price cap for Russian oil that is to apply worldwide.
According to an analysis by the financial service
Bloomberg
in cooperation with the think tank Bruegel, the sanctions are already taking effect: According to this, only 450,000 barrels of Russian oil per day reached European ports in mid-December, compared to 1.43 million barrels a month ago.
At the same time, the volume of oil exports by sea fell
54 percent to about 1.6 million barrels a day since Dec. 5, according to
Bloomberg .
And this despite the fact that exports to non-EU and non-G7 countries have increased.
Russia is building a shadow fleet
This data suggests that Russia has not yet managed to compensate for the loss of European buyers.
One of the reasons for this could be that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Russia to find ships to transport its oil.
After the price cap came into force, companies from G7 and EU countries as well as Australia may only provide services related to the ship transport of Russian oil if the upper limit is observed when selling the oil.
But Russia does not want to stick to the oil price cap.
The problem for Putin: Russia is heavily dependent on the West for the sea freight business and is actually dependent on the West for oil transport by sea, shipping companies and insurance companies.
That is why Russia is now apparently trying to make itself independent of the West by building up a shadow fleet from old oil tankers and selling its oil in this way – in Asia, for example.
With material from the dpa
