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