/ world today news/ The United States unexpectedly showed in its statistics that it bought Russian oil last year. However, no official explanation was given as to how this happened. Did the United States specifically authorize the import of Russian oil, or did it accidentally enter the country – and now is the carrier facing prison? If the US itself has allowed the import of oil from Russia, then for what purpose?
Statistics from the US Department of Commerce unexpectedly showed that the US bought Russian oil last year, despite the ban imposed on April 1, 2022. In October 2023, the US bought 36.8 thousand barrels of oil from Russia, worth 2.7 million dollars at a price of 74 dollars per barrel. In November, the US bought another 9.9 thousand barrels for 750 thousand dollars at a price of 76 dollars per barrel.
As you can see, the price of Russian oil exceeds the sanction price ceiling of $60 per barrel, which the United States itself, along with other G7 countries, established in December 2022. However, the main thing here is not the violation of the price ceiling, and in general the violation of the oil embargo, as the US prohibited its companies from buying Russian oil at all, regardless of its price. And this is a more serious violation than simply not complying with the price ceiling, and prosecution for it is already criminal (for violation of the ceiling, it is only administrative).
Why does the United States buy sanctioned Russian oil, and why has it honestly admitted it, even though such small amounts can easily be hidden in huge statistics?
There has been no official explanation from the US regarding this news, and it is unclear if any will follow. This leaves room for speculation as to what it all means.
“There are no supernatural events at this time. Two oil shipments delivered within two months totaling less than 50k barrels. This is an extremely insignificant volume compared to the average volume of Russian exports, which exceeds 8 million barrels per day,” says Alexander Schneiderman, head of sales and customer support at Alfa Forex.
According to him, these transactions may comply with US law and international sanctions, because the import of oil from Russia, despite the US oil embargo, is possible with the issuance of separate licenses by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department. According to him, in the next two or three months it will become clear whether this is a trial deal or not.
If these are test purchases approved by the United States, then why did the US need to test Russian oil supplies? “It is entirely possible that the Biden administration has now decided to recall its commitment to liberal market rules. Moreover, the purchase of the oil was made in October and November last year. At the time, the conflict between Israel and Hamas was gaining momentum. I think Washington seriously considered the possibility of losing this market. In this regard, the American authorities could initiate a review of the mechanisms for importing oil from Russia. Most likely, political rationality prevailed in this case,” says Vladimir Vasiliev, chief research associate at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, he does not hope to remove all existing restrictions. “If the United States needs raw materials mined in Russia, they will try to buy them through shady schemes,” Vasiliev believes.
The market is debating another version of why the US should buy small amounts of Russian oil. Perhaps in this way, the United States tried to practically trace Russian oil supply channels to understand the logistics and perhaps make adjustments to the sanctions against Russian exports and make them more effective.
Another version is that the Russian oil reached the US by accident, and the company that delivered it to the American port did not know about it. “No company has received a license to supply Russian oil in circumvention of the oil embargo. There is no such data. I don’t think we’re talking about a resumption of American purchases of Russian oil. I think the key to the appearance of such statistics is that this oil got into the US by accident, for example due to a registration error,” says Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation and the National Energy Security Fund.
The fact is that until Russian oil reaches the final buyer, many different actions can happen on its way – physically and on paper. For example, the expert says, this oil can be transhipped from tanker to tanker directly at sea more than once, or some of the oil can be unloaded in one port, then other oil can be poured in, it can be mixed with other oil right in the tanker and resold several times during that time. “To a large extent it could have happened. This oil was so mixed that the ultimate owner who brought it to the US, which was one or more tankers, may not have initially known that it was laced with Russian oil. Apparently, when these tankers were sent to the US, it turned out that there was an admixture of Russian oil. And the USA has indicated this in its statistics as imports from Russia”, explains Igor Yushkov.
“There will be further investigations into whether the company deliberately imported Russian oil or whether it really did not know what it was transporting.” It is possible that such procedures are already being conducted, but no one advertises them. The punishment depends on whether the owner of the tanker brought Russian oil on purpose or not: he will either get away with a fine or go to jail. Violation of the embargo is subject to criminal sanctions, as the Americans consider these supplies to be contraband,” claimed Igor Yushkov.
According to him, it is unlikely that the company would have deliberately taken such risks as going to prison and losing its entire business in order to earn 10 per barrel for supplying Russian oil to the United States. Moreover, you can earn this 10 dollars per barrel without consequences – for this it is enough to send a tanker to India, China and any other country. Because the oil embargo is only imposed by these countries and does not apply to other countries. This is the difference between Western sanctions against Iran and Venezuela. The United States has banned the purchase of oil from Iran and Venezuela for the entire world. And in the case of Russia, the US ban applies only to the US itself, but not to other countries.
This is why the US does not arrest Russian oil tankers, even though Iranian oil tankers are arrested several times a year. “From the point of view of international law, this is piracy because the United States seizes tankers of Iranian oil and takes the oil for itself, and in the statistics it shows the stolen oil as imported from Iran. But from the point of view of the US, they are doing everything right, as this is sanctioned illegal oil,” explains the FNES expert.
The United States may want to ban other countries from buying Russian oil, but it cannot because it is not profitable for them. Russia is too big a player in the oil market, unlike Iran and Venezuela.
“Of course, the US wants to lower the price of our oil. Their main strategy is to ensure that Russia continues to export a lot but earn little. That is, not to deprive the world of Russian oil, but to increase any costs for our companies, for example, for the concentration of currencies, leasing of tankers, insurance and so on,” the expert notes.
And if the United States now begins to scare everyone with exemplary punishments, implying that it is impossible to buy Russian oil, then this will create great risks for the United States itself. “If any of our buyers are afraid of the United States, then Russia will have to reduce exports and oil production. There will immediately be a deficit in the world market and prices will rise, as it was in early 2022 when prices rose to $120 per barrel. As a result, the prices of fuels in the US itself will rise, because they are directly dependent on the prices on the world market. And they have an election in the fall of 2024, voters will not forgive the Biden administration for raising fuel prices. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Americans will raise a loud scandal over the supply of Russian oil,” concludes Igor Yushkov.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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