Bloomberg columnist: Russia is winning in energy markets
YEREVAN, August 11, /ARKA/. Russia is winning in the energy markets, milking its oil cash cow, earning hundreds of millions of dollars every day, according to Bloomberg opinion columnist Javier Blas, Tass reports.
Blas says Russia’s last month oil output climbed back to near pre-war levels, averaging almost 10.8 million barrels per day, only marginally down from the 11 million pumped in January.
He says Russia has found new customers for the million barrels a day or so that European oil refiners have stopped purchasing due to self-sanctioning. Most of that crude is ending up in Asia — notably India — but also in Turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East. And some is still showing up in Europe, with buyers still purchasing Russian crude ahead of the planned introduction of official sanctions in early November.
The Urals crude, the flagship Russian oil export to Europe is recovering in price, selling recently at $20 to $25 a barrel cheaper than the Brent benchmark, after trading at a discount of almost $35 in early April.
Everyone who bet that Russian oil production would continue to drop — myself included — got it wrong, Blas says.
‘With Brent crude hovering at close to $100 a barrel, and with Russia able to offer smaller discounts, there’s plenty of money coming in to the Kremlin. For now at least, energy sanctions aren’t working,’ Blas says.
He says a combination of cold weather, surging demand for electricity and soaring prices later this year risks undermining Western support for Ukraine.
He says also that European politicians who've been eager to win international kudos by flaunting their support for Kyiv may be less willing to foot the domestic bill for averting energy poverty among their own voters.-0--
