About 8% of U.S. imports of crude oil and refined products come from Russia, including 3% for crude oil alone, Andy Lipow, oil market expert at Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said this week, citing figures from the International Energy Agency in 2021.
Jim Krane, an expert at the Baker Institute, a think tank at Rice University in Houston, points out that stopping Russian oil imports would be mostly a symbolic gesture for the United States, given the small quantities imported. He believes that Russia would be penalized more.
“We have no strategic interest in reducing the international energy supply »said the deputy spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre.
She stressed that Washington did not want “ fill Putin’s pockets » or penalize US consumers by driving up the price of black gold even more, which could happen after an import ban is announced.
Failing to immediately cut these imports, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the United States would release 30 million barrels of oil from the United States’ strategic reserves in order to stabilize the market which is tending to soar even more. .