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Virtue Sanctioning of oil doesn't work (just like Socialism doesn't work).
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https://irinaslav.substack.com/p/its-embargo-time
"It's embargo time
The European Union has done it. It has overcome opposition from Central Europe and has managed to remain united in the face of adversity, that is, Russia making money from the export of its fossil fuels.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, tweeted proudly that “The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned.” The EU rejoiced. Or did it? (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.)
Where to begin… Let’s begin with the fact that the agreement reached by EU leaders is an agreement in principle. This is suspiciously similar to memoranda of understanding that sound just like hard contracts but are, in fact, nothing of the sort. An agreement in principle is basically an indication that you will do something but the how and the what exactly remain to be determined.
Let’s then continue with Michel’s assertion that “The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports.” Really? How? The agreement appears to be on a gradual phase-out of imports to last until the end of the year. There is nothing immediate about a gradual phase-out and I apologise I had to put this blatant truism into words.
The 75% of Russian oil imports into the EU, according to Reuters, are the imports that come by tankers. In addition to suspending these imports — in principle and gradually — Germany and Poland intend to stop buying oil coming via the Druzhba pipeline by the end of the year, leaving, theoretically, only the Central European sucklings of the pipeline importing Russian oil come 2023.
All this sounds wonderful. In principle. In reality, things look a bit, shall we say, expensive. As Reuters’ Clyde Russell noted in an immediate column following the news of the embargo agreement, the EU will need to source its oil elsewhere once it stops letting tankers carrying Russian crude offload at EU ports. And they can’t just buy any oil because of the way many European refineries are configured, for oil with the characteristics of Urals.
“Some grades of crude from Angola and Nigeria, as well as some from the Middle East have similar qualities to Urals, which has an API gravity of 30.6 and a sulphur percentage of 1.48, making it a medium sour oil,” Russell wrote. Let’s have a look at prices, shall we? …