Russia continues to sell the bulk or about 75% of its seaborne oil outside the Western price cap of $60 per barrel, imposed on December 5 by the Group of Seven (G7) countries amid Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Department of the Treasury Ben Harris said on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2023) Russia continues to sell the bulk or about 75% of its seaborne oil outside the Western price cap of $60 per barrel, imposed on December 5 by the Group of Seven (G7) countries amid Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Department of the Treasury Ben Harris said on Tuesday.
"(A)bout a quarter of Russian (oil) trade is being done using Western services of some sort, and three quarters are being done using nonwestern services. So, for this quarter of Western services, those are bound by the price cap, you have to trade under the level that we have set and that level is $60 for crude (oil), $100 for high-value refined products, and $45 for low-value and refined products," Harris said during an American Enterprise Institute discussion.
The United States is "fine" with other countries benefiting from the price cap oil as long as it is not Russia, Harris noted. The price cap allows the West to take oil revenues from Russia and distribute them around the globe by putting them in other countries.
After Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine, the countries of the so-called collective West actively searched for ways to limit Moscow's energy-related income, notably from oil and gas. The effort culminated in a $60 price cap imposed by the G7 member states and Australia on December 5.
In response to the price cap, Moscow banned the supply of Russian oil and petroleum products if contracts directly or indirectly provide for a price cap, in a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin in late December.
