Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Washington would be happy to see New Delhi continue to buy oil from Moscow at a price above a G7-imposed price ceiling set to take effect next month. The announcement came after India declared it would buy oil from Russia and ignore the price cap.
Yellen made the remarks in India on Friday. Russian oil “is going to be selling at bargain prices and we’re happy to have India get that bargain or Africa or China. It’s fine,” she said. Yellen believes the price cap will allow India, China and African countries to buy Russian oil at a discount.
Yellen provided further details to Reuters. India and private Indian oil companies “can also purchase oil at any price they want as long as they don’t use these Western services and they find other services." Yellen added, "[A]nd either way is fine.”
The price cap was designed by Yellen to cut Russia’s energy revenue without driving up prices. However, analysts believe oil could climb to over $300 per barrel if Moscow responds to the cap by curbing production.
It’s unclear how the price cap will function. The G7 has yet to announce what will be the highest price a country or company can import Russian oil without facing sanctions. The policy requires Russia to make agreements with shippers, insurers, private companies and governments to sell oil at below-market prices. The Kremlin says it will not export oil to any country or company that adopts the Western price cap.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the US and its partners have attempted to "cripple" Moscow’s economy. The economic war has largely backfired, with rising prices in the West leading to protests against sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has found partners in India, China, Turkey and Africa to replace the shrinking energy imports to Europe. In September, New Delhi imported 23% of its oil from Moscow, up from two percent before the war in Ukraine began.
Yellen’s comments come after New Delhi announced it has no plans to curb its Russian energy imports. On Tuesday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, "As the world’s third-largest consumer of oil and gas, a consumer where the levels of income are not very high, it is our fundamental obligation to ensure that the Indian consumer has the best possible access on the most advantageous terms to international markets," he said, adding "we have seen that the India-Russia relationship has worked to advantage. If it works to my advantage, I would like to keep that going."
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Dictating to everyone in the name of freedom. “The free world” is more authoritarian than those they slander as authoritarian. Maybe it’s time for the world to sanction western service providers until their fees are satisfactory to Russia and the rest of the world that believes in the free market.
Just the headline is hilarious. The idea of a monopoly price fixing scheme that excludes close to half the planet from the start seems too ridiculous even for the government, but of course there’s no such thing. If we’re going to meekly accept the government seizing absolute power we should at least find some masters who aren’t transparent nitwits.
No mention of the oil that we are stealing from Syria.
Totalitarian occupation forces of the US are stealing Syria’s oil and also impoverishing US citizens.
“”The price cap (on the price of russian oil) was designed by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen””
hilarious, check this out = a stranger on the other side of town has decided how much my drug dealer down the street from me can charge me for drugs, and he drove all the way across town and told me that with a straight face.
[India and private Indian oil companies “can also purchase oil at any price they want as long as they don’t use these Western services and they find other services.” Yellen added, “[A]nd either way is fine.”]
What Western services is she referring to? insurance, credit, shipping, refining, sales & marketing, …?
How big hearted
the hegemon is for allowing india and China to take advantage of low priced Russian oil. They really know how to turn lemons into lemonade