Russia Targets Europe With a Commodity Weapon: Kazakh Crude
- Halting flows through the CPC pipeline won’t hurt Russia
- Europe could lose as much as a million barrels a day of crude
This article is for subscribers only.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has found another weapon to use against European countries supporting Ukraine -- Kazakhstan’s crude -- and it will cost him almost nothing, writes Bloomberg oil strategist Julian Lee.
While a grace period ticks down before European sanctions on Russian oil kick in on Dec. 5 and the G7 group of industrialized countries considers a price cap on Moscow’s crude exports, Putin is getting his retaliation in early. A court in the town of Novorossiysk has ordered the Caspian Pipeline Consortium to halt shipments from its Black Sea export terminal for a month as punishment for violating oil spill regulations.