The United States will impose an embargo on imports of crude oil, coal and gas from Russia in response to the war in Ukraine; US media reported in the last few minutes, according to government sources. ).
In recent days, an inter-party coalition has formed in the United States calling on the US president to take this step, in an attempt to hurt Russia’s revenue from the sale of energy and “stop funding the war in Ukraine” as they defined it. The Ukrainians also demanded it from the United States.
Russia is the second largest oil supplier to the U.S. (after Saudi Arabia). The U.S. typically receives millions of barrels of crude oil from Russia, and by 2021 it is estimated to have paid about $ 18 billion to the country for oil.
So far the US administration has been wary of energy sanctions, due to fears of further raising fuel prices and energy prices for US industry. Fuel prices have risen by half a dollar a gallon in the past week – the fastest rise ever.
In response to reports, the price of a Brent barrel of oil has skyrocketed to $ 130 a barrel, a record since 2008.
In recent days, the United States has been in talks with Venezuela, which has so far suffered from US sanctions over its operations, to renew oil supplies from the country. Washington also reports talks with Saudi Arabia on increasing output and supplies to the country. Barrels of oil from its emergency supply, if the ban on imports of crude oil is announced today.
Contrary to the US move, Germany and the EU are not expected at this stage to stop importing energy to the continent, most of which is constantly flowing natural gas – and even at increased capacity in pipelines from Russia to Europe. Europe is also paying billions to Russia for this gas.
Yesterday (Monday), German Chancellor Olaf Schultz acknowledged European dependence on Russian gas, noting that the sanctions imposed so far “serve the need to continue importing Russian energy.” Accordingly, some banks have been exempted from being cut off from Swift, and the country is not considering a boycott of Russian energy. About 75% of the coal that Germany uses to produce electricity also comes from Russia.