G7 agrees on Russian oil price cap

They had already raised the subject in June before temporizing in view of its complexity. This Friday, September 2, the finance ministers of the G7 (United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada and Japan) returned to the charge and this time agreed on a future cap on the price of oil. Russian imported. “Today the G7 has taken a critical step towards achieving our twin goals of putting downward pressure on global energy prices while depriving Vladimir Putin of revenue to fund his brutal war in Ukraine. », hastened to declare the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen. Since the start of the conflict, Moscow has earned 74 billion dollars thanks to its oil sales, according to the International Institute of Finance.

For now, the terms of application of such a device have not been disclosed. “The price cap will be set at a level based on a series of technical data and will be decided by the entire coalition before its implementation,” announced the seven countries. They nevertheless confirmed their desire to prohibit insurance and reinsurance companies from covering the maritime transport of Russian oil if the latter is purchased at a price lower than or equal to that “determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to or implementing the price cap”.

Lightnings

To be effective, this scheme should involve as many importing countries as possible, particularly India where refiners have seized on cheap Russian oil that was refused by Western traders. As for the European Union – which is considering an embargo on Russian crude from December 5 – Russian black gold accounted for 27% of its oil imports in 2021. And 13% of French purchases. Since then, its share has already fallen in both cases and would weigh around 9% for France, which mainly buys diesel.

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In the meantime, this announcement did not fail to arouse the wrath of Moscow. Such a “Interference will only destabilize the oil industry, the oil market. And for that, European and American consumers will be the first to pay.”threatened Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, quoted by Russian news agencies.