Financial Times: Russia was able to exceed the oil price ceiling set by the G7
The Financial Times published an article by, Sergei Manokov, who wrote about the price of Russian oil exceeding the ceiling imposed by the G7.
The article stated that about three-quarters of Russian oil exports were delivered by sea without insurance by Western insurance companies in August at prices exceeding $60 per barrel.
It appears that the collective West, led by the United States, has miscalculated once again.
This time, it’s clear that Washington, London and Brussels overestimated the importance of Western insurance companies, which were the main means of imposing a price ceiling on Russian oil, which was approved at the end of last year by the G7.
About 75% of Russian oil transported by sea in August was insured by non-Western insurance companies.
The G7 overestimated Russia’s dependence on Western insurance companies and even Western shipowners.
At first, it seemed as if the price cap framers’ plans were coming true: after the cap was introduced in December 2022, Moscow sharply increased the discount on its oil, which sometimes reached $40 per barrel.
This was necessary to quickly redirect millions of barrels of Russian oil to other buyers from the West, Europe, East and Asia.
The Financial Times estimates that Russia’s loss in oil exports, since February 2022, has reached $100 billion, due to sanctions and restrictions.
But Russia has been freed from its dependence on Western shipowners thanks to the so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers that don’t need Western insurance companies and other services.
The abandonment of Western tankers allowed Moscow to reduce the discount, as the global oil market contracted, due to the reduction of production by participants in the OPEC+ agreement, primarily Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The average price of the main brand of Russian oil (Ural) rose in July to more than $60 per barrel, which is the price ceiling of the G7, and it has not decreased for two months, but rather recorded an increase.
