(Washington) US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that she was “optimistic” about the possibility of reaching, with US allies, a cap on the price of oil sold by Russia.
Posted at 5:17 p.m.
“I am really optimistic that the substantial progress that has been made by our teams and the entire G7 towards us getting to the price cap,” said Joe Biden’s Secretary of Economy and Finance, during a meeting. a meeting in Washington with his British counterpart, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi.
“The UK has been a key ally in the G7’s work to put a cap on the price of Russian oil,” added Janet Yellen.
The leaders of the G7 countries agreed, at the end of June, to work towards a ceiling on the price of Russian oil, in order to deprive Moscow of part of its windfall from the energy sector.
Concretely, Russia would sell its oil to these countries at a lower price than the one at which it sells it today, but which would remain higher than the production price, so that it has an economic interest in continuing to sell it to them, and so that it does not cut its deliveries.
“There is a significant margin between the price of production and what Russia is doing today, within which we can set the ceiling that will create economic incentives for Russia to continue producing oil, while denying them the surplus income they get today,” a G7 official said at the end of July.
He also acknowledged that the deadline for finalizing this plan is, de facto, December 5, when the European ban will come into force for insurers and reinsurers to cover the maritime transport of Russian oil.
Washington is indeed asking for an “exemption” from this ban on insurance for oil that would be shipped below the price ceiling.
The challenge is to bring as many countries as possible into this camp.
The subject should be on the table at the G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia) on November 15 and 16.