Costing a Russian oil supply gap
Analysts see potential for $200/bl+ if it becomes ever more difficult in practice for Western nations to buy crude from Russia
US president Joe Biden may be prepared for Europe not to join his embargo on importing Russian oil. But Shell’s decision to commit to buying no more Russian spot oil and to phase it out of its supply chains entirely over the coming weeks serves as a reminder that—even if countries are not yet officially banning imports from Russia—buying, paying for and securing finance to trade in the country’s oil is already proving challenging in many jurisdictions. When following the US’ lead on Tuesday, the UK government estimated that 70pc of Russian oil was struggling to find a buyer. So it is no surprise that analysts are scrambling to try to put a price on the impact of replumbing the global crude s

Also in this section
27 May 2025
Country is boosting domestic energy production while targeting development of oil and gas reserves in Africa and Asia
27 May 2025
A newly formed joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sinopec signals rising Gulf interest in the Asian market
23 May 2025
LNG projects need the certainty of long-term contracts, but Henry-Hub–linked deals put buyers at significant risk
22 May 2025
Industry says compliance is near-impossible and have called for more clarity to prevent cargoes being redirected