Oil exports to the two most populous countries on the planet, India and China, have made up 90% of all Russia’s crude exports this year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state broadcaster Rossiya-24 on Wednesday.
India has even been able to purchase exported Russian crude oil, sometimes at a discount, refine it, and then sell it to Europe. This is partly possible because refineries often use crude from various sources, making it difficult or impossible to define where the end product originally hailed from.
He predicted that Russian oil and gas export revenues would total almost 9 trillion rubles (roughly $98 billion) for the year, a level similar to 2021, the last year before the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions.
*The oil and gas industry accounts for around 27% of Russia’s GDP, according to Novak, and around 57% of its export revenues. He said Moscow remained open to other buyers. *
“There are a lot of people who want to buy Russian oil. These are Latin American countries, African countries, and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
US & West oil sanctions have proved ineffective. And the EU is buying refined oil products made from its crude.
The Western Cartel prices Russian oil at about $70 bbl. This is a major cut into Russia profiting off of its oil. That is what matters. Why disrupt everyone else’s business?
Firstpost , an Indian YouTube site, has noted the same thing.
YouTubers Peter Zeihan and Joe Bloggs disagree, having opined that the Russian economy is on dire straits due to the collapse of oil earnings.
Since the issue with India (and China) refusing to “honor” the sanctions against Russia, is now out in the open, will the US and West be able to more openly apply sanctions against “parts” of India (and China) to nudge them to stop supporting Russia?
Interference with ship-to-ship tranfer of oil at sea carries risks, such as massive pollution at sea. Blockade the ships carrying the oil from Russia is possible–but same/other problems as well. War by another name…
Peter Zeihan opined a few days ago, that the Houthis terrorizing ships passing through the Red Sea, would cause VLCC to go around Africa’s Cape, and that smaller oil carriers that are transporting Clandestine Russian oil would NOT be able to make that trip…
Resulting in Clandestine Russian oil NOT reaching India, China, or the developing south sea nations that so desperately need cheap Russian oil.
If so, maybe the Houthis (Iran) have done the world a favor?
The US led coalition will put military ships in the Red Sea which can intercept the Clandestine Russian oil.
These ships and oil might be confiscated and the wealth diverted to appropriate ports for use in paying for more military support for Ukraine?
I don’t think so as India is part of the anti-China pressure. They are spending a lot of money to increase the size of their navy to counter balance China naval forces.
