Russia hits back at the EU’s partial oil embargo, says it will find other importers for its crude

Shortly after the world's largest trading bloc agreed to impose a partial embargo on Russian crude, Moscow promised to find other oil buyers.

The EU decided on Monday to ban most Russian oil imports by the end of the year as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

The move was hailed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as a landmark decision to cripple Russian President Vladimir Putin's war machine.

Russian oil brought into the bloc by sea is covered, but an exemption is carved out for imports delivered by pipeline after opposition from Hungary.

The EU’s partial embargo covers Russian oil brought into the bloc by sea, with an exemption carved out for imports delivered by pipeline following opposition from Hungary.

The EU's sixth package of sanctions against Russia required approval from all 27 member states and has yet to be formally approved.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said the oil ban reflects negatively on the bloc.

Ulyanov referred to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as she rightly said yesterday. The EU has an executive body called the commission.

It'sworthy that she now backtracks on her statement. He said that a quick change of mindset indicates that the EU is not in a good shape.

The EU's von der Leyen welcomed the bloc's agreement on oil sanctions against Russia. She said that by the end of the year, the policy would cut imports from Russia to the bloc by around 90 percent.

Russia is a country that plays an outsized role in global oil markets.

Russia is the third-largest oil producer in the world, behind the US and Saudi Arabia.

Energy-importing countries continue to top up Putin's war chest despite the EU imposing a total embargo on Russian oil and gas.

Kallas called for the EU to discuss the possibility of a Russian gas embargo in the next round of sanctions. Austria's chancellor, Karl Nehammer, rejected this idea, saying it will not be a topic for discussion in the next set of measures.

Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom cut off supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerrra, and Orsted warned it too was facing a halt to supplies.

The price of oil went up on Tuesday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures increased 3% to $118.66.

The European Council President said the compromise on oil sanctions was a sign of the bloc's unity. It was thought that a failure to secure a deal would be seen as a victory for Putin.

I think it is as good as could be, according to Adi Imsirovic, senior research fellow at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

The EU's decision paves the way for the bloc and the U.S. to put pressure on other countries to impose similar measures on Russian oil.

It was difficult to ask India to stop imports if Europe didn't do it. He said that it was important from the political point of view.

India has dismissed criticism of its continued purchases of Russian energy in the wake of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

According to Refinitiv Eikon data, India has seen its crude imports from Russia increase since Russia invaded Ukraine.

A sudden halt to Russian oil imports would hurt Asia's consumers, the third-largest economy has said.

According to shipping data and unnamed oil traders, China has been quietly ramping up purchases of oil from Russia at discounted prices. It appears that the world's biggest importer of crude is filling the void left by the severing of ties with Russia.

The EU agreed on measures to cut Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, from the SWIFT messaging system and to ban three more state-owned broadcasters.

There is a ban on Russian ships being insured by EU companies.

The shipping insurance ban is almost certainly going to be included in the package. I haven't seen the details of that yet but I'm pretty sure that will be included.

He estimated that most of the shipping insurance for Russian oil was done in London.

The previous rounds of measures included restricted access to capital markets, freezing Russia's central bank assets, and banning imports of Russian coal and other commodities.