Status: 02/04/2023 03:19 am
The EU countries have agreed on a price cap for Russian oil products. A little later, the G7 and Australia declared that they too had agreed on such upper limits. They should apply from Sunday.
According to the Swedish EU Council Presidency, the EU countries have agreed on a price cap for Russian oil products. With the upper limit, the EU wants to further cut Russia’s financial sources for the war in Ukraine.
According to EU diplomats, a price cap of $100 per barrel should apply to high-quality oil products such as diesel and $45 per barrel to cheaper products such as heating oil. The decision goes back to a proposal by the EU Commission, according to which the limits should apply from Sunday.
G7 and Australia also agree on price caps
According to diplomats, Poland and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had advocated lower upper limits, which delayed the negotiations by a few days. The G7 and Australia said they had also agreed on a price cap. The limits therefore correspond to those of the EU.
At the beginning of December, the EU, the G7 and Australia had already imposed a price cap of 60 dollars on Russian crude oil. The limit is enforced by allowing Western shipowners and insurers to transport and insure Russian products only if the upper limits were respected at the time of purchase.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said there were early signs that the crude oil price cap would hurt Russia’s revenues. According to an assessment by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday, the existing upper price limit for Russian oil is already costing Moscow around 160 million euros a day.