Chasing Russian oil while avoiding a new earthquake, the “conscious balance” of the West

This Friday, December 2, the European Union took a new step in its efforts to reduce the oil rent with which Russia finances its war against Ukraine. While the sanctions implemented for months against strategic sectors of the Russian economy have been largely cushioned by the very high prices of hydrocarbons, the Twenty-Seven have agreed on a ceiling of 60 dollars per barrel from Moscow’s vast oil reserves. It is another blow to the Putin regime’s main source of currency, but it will certainly not be the final blow.

The measure does not directly concern the EU countries themselves, which have otherwise agreed to an embargo on Russian oil that came into force on 5 December. Above all, it is a question of reducing the income that Moscow derives from its sales to other countries, such as China and India, which in recent months have benefited from the windfall created by the Western anathema against Russian oil. For Westerners eager to prevent oil prices from suffering a new global earthquake, oil flows must imperatively be maintained: if Russia’s taps were completely cut off, the rest of world production would not be able to meet all demand.

Although neither China nor India have reached the European ceiling (to which the G7 and Australia have joined), the measure will have many results