Russia has denied noticing any a price cap on its crude oil on sale. The embattled invader of Ukraine also claims not having seen the impact of the price cap mechanism.
Russian news agency, TASS, yesterday quoted Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov saying his country is skeptical about attempts to calculate losses from the price cap.
He said it is too early to draw conclusions about the impact of the price cap, and “there is no evidence to support such conclusions,” the Putin’s spokesman said when asked to comment on a report earlier published yesterday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Also Read: Russia To Monitor Its Oil Discount As Plunging Revenues Blow Up Budget Deficit
The report says that the EU oil ban and the G7-EU price cap are costing Russia $172 million (160 million euros) per day, due to the fall in shipment volumes and prices for Russian oil.
Urals, Russia’s flagship crude grade was going for $37.80 a barrel at the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Friday, half the Brent Crude price on the same day, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing data provided by Argus Media.
Despite his claims, Russian oil revenues are expected to drop further in February due to the EU’s ban on refined oil imports, the extension of the price cap to refined oil, and reductions in pipeline oil imports to Poland, CREA said.
Also Read: India Boosts Imports With Russia’s Arctic Oil
“So far, no one has really come across an oil price cap…so we are skeptical about such [forecast figures],” Peskov tried to counter the data released by CREA.
The EU and G7 banned on December 5 maritime transportation services from shipping Russia’s crude oil to third countries if the oil is bought above the price cap of $60 per barrel, and the EU imposed an embargo on seaborne imports of Russian oil into the bloc.
Russia maintains that the price cap will not seriously hit its oil production and economy. The country’s oil production will not fall off a cliff now that the EU-G7 price cap on Russian crude has come into effect, Russia’s first deputy energy minister, Pavel Sorokin said last month.
By Bosco Agba
Be the first to know when we publish an update
