Russian oil production volumes grow, prices are stable, OPEC countries support Russia. It appears that Russia is taking advantage of many things. At the same time, the Europeans will soon have to experience new prices on energy as winter is coming soon.
President Vladimir Putin is winning the struggle on energy markets, no matter what indicators one may analyze, Bloomberg said. Russia earns hundreds of millions of dollars every day, and this fact boggles the minds of both US and European press.
New sanctions against Russian oil will come into force in November. European governments will face a difficult choice, the agency notes.
This is solely their choice. As long as EU countries have imposed an embargo on oil imports from Russia (restrictions apply to maritime transport), they should understand what they are doing.
However, the authors of the Bloomberg article are not so much interested in how much EU citizens will have to pay for electricity — the question of how much Russia earns from energy supplies is given first priority attention.
In particular, the article notes that the volume of Russian oil production reached almost 10.8 million barrels per day. This is quite a bit short of January's 11 million barrels.
Russia has found new buyers for its oil. Instead of Europe, Russia now sells oil to India, Turkey and a number of states in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has significantly increased the volume of oil products purchased in Russia (primarily fuel oil).
Not all European countries refuse to import Russian oil. Italy, for example, is ramping up its volumes, trying to stock up before the embargo comes into effect.
Not that long ago, Russia had to sell oil at a discount in order to attract new buyers. Nowadays, prices have leveled off, and new traders have been found who are willing to buy Russian oil.
Another indicator is political. Western countries expected OPEC to sever relations with Russia. Afterwards, OPEC should have increased oil supplies, as the European Union and the United States would like to.
However, after US President Joseph Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak arrived there too. A few days after his trip, OPEC+ members announced a "miniscule” (as Bloomberg noted) increase in oil production.
Publicly, European politicians continue to call for firmness and unity, but they are well aware of the problems that threaten their countries after they refused from buying energy resources from Russia.
It is only the Hungarian government that makes it absolutely clear: Hungary will not be able to live without Russian fuel supplies. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was dubbed "Putin's Trojan horse" for his stance on the matter.
Residents of Hungary's neighboring states travel to Hungary to visit local gas stations, because gasoline is much cheaper in Hangary than in their countries. The Hungarian government was even forced to impose restrictions at this point.