EU fails to agree on Russian oil price cap
(VOVWORLD) - European Union governments failed to agree on Monday on a price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil. Poland insisted that the cap be set lower than proposed by the G7 to reduce Russia’s finance ability, observers said.
 An oil rig in Almetyevsk, Russia. (Photo: TASS/VNA) |
No new date for talks has yet been set, even though the price cap mechanism is supposed to take effect on December 5.
If there is no agreement on the price cap by next Monday, the EU will implement the harsher measures agreed at the end of May - a ban on all Russian crude oil imports beginning December 5 and on all petroleum products beginning February 5.
Hungary and two other landlocked central European states secured exemptions from that ban for the pipeline imports they rely on.
The G7 proposed a softer version of the EU ban to keep oil supply to the global economy steady. It proposed that the EU and other customers keep buying Russian crude, but only at a price at or below a G7 agreed level of 65-70 USD per barrel.