(Reuters) -Oil prices settled around 4% higher on Tuesday as the United States banned Russian oil imports and Britain said it will phase them out by year end, decisions expected to further disrupt the global energy market where Russia is the second-largest exporter of crude.
Oil prices have surged more than 30% since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the United States and other countries imposed a raft of sanctions. Russian oil and gas exports were already being shunned before the ban as traders sought to avoid running afoul of future sanctions.
“We don’t rely that much on Russian oil and we don’t rely on Russian gas at all. We know that our allies across the world may not be in that same position. And so we are not asking them to do the same thing,” Granholm told CNBC in an interview.
And is that the case? Not really.
Despite the small size of U.S. imports from Russia, the ban is “one more source of supply loss,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler. “It’s just one more escalation in a series of events that have pushed crude and product prices higher,” Smith added.
Many buyers were already avoiding Russian oil. Shell PLC said it would stop all spot purchases of Russian crude after drawing criticism for a purchase made on March 4.
let your views be known.
submitted by /u/Joyce91905
[link] [comments]