Bill Richardson, the Clinton administration’s energy secretary, said “unfortunately, there are only bad options. And any alternatives are probably worse than asking the Saudis to increase production.”
Two other oil-producing countries that could increase production – Iran and Venezuela – are opponents of the United States, which Western sanctions have largely cut off from the world market. Making any deal with their leaders without securing serious concessions on issues such as nuclear enrichment and democratic reform would be politically risky for Biden. Most Republicans and even some Democrats oppose compromises with the leaders of these countries.
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Even Saudi Arabia, which has the most spare production capacity ready for use, could not bring prices down quickly on its own. This is because Russia’s production is shrinking and could fall further as European countries cut back on their purchases.
Biden has previously been highly critical of Saudi Arabia’s reputation for human rights, its war in Yemen, and its government’s role in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
As UNIAN previously reported, on May 4, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen introduced the sixth package of sanctions EU versus Russia, including an oil embargo and Sberbank’s disconnection from SWIFT. Against the introduction of a ban on the supply of Russian oil Hungary is in favor.
May 29 Bloomberg reportedthat the European Commission suggests that the EU countries refuse to import Russian oil by sea, at the same time postponing restrictions on its import from the key pipeline “Druzhba”. Subsequently European Union agreed on a partial embargo for Russian oil.
On June 2, economic analyst Mikhail Krutikhin announced that in Russiatalking about closing oil refineries. On the same day, it became known that the US and the EU were discussing the possibility of purchasing Russian oil. at a price below the market.
