MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The fuel crisis facing the EU may force the bloc to lift its ban on Russian oil, and the United States may wrap up its Iran war without reopening the Hormuz Strait. Meanwhile, Ukraine strikes a northwest Russian seaport with drones from Baltic territory. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
The Middle East crisis has already had a major impact on both motor and jet fuel and the existing rules of trading in oil and petroleum products. The United States has already suspended sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil exports. Even as the EU has not lifted its sanctions yet, the bloc has already pushed back a law to permanently ban Russian oil imports through the Druzhba pipeline. Unless the Middle East crisis ends soon, Brussels will have to consider easing its own restrictions on Russian oil as Europe will simply have no choice.
Maxim Malkov, a Kept partner and head of the firm’s oil and gas practice, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview that the EU’s capabilities regarding additional imports are very restricted amid a structural oil and petroleum supply deficit facing the global market. A few months prior to the Middle East crisis, the US and India were the largest suppliers to Europe, but the oil and petroleum deficit is a critical factor for India itself, while oil refineries in the US remain dependent on Middle East oil supplies. And there are currently no major alternative suppliers globally, Malkov emphasized.
