Poland and the Baltic States demand a price cap for oil from Russia at $30 per barrel

Alexey Belogoryev, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Business FM on Poland's proposal to set a "price ceiling" for Russian oil at $30 per barrel.

“The key countries that came up with this concept of the price ceiling are interested in having it initially high enough, that is, close to the current price of Urals, about $70-75 per barrel, so that it would be profitable for Russian companies to supply oil under this scheme. Because the market is not ready now for the loss of a large volume of Russian exports, there is essentially nothing to replace it. And for this purpose, the price ceiling was invented mainly to bring down world prices due to the fact that one of the largest exporters, in this case Russia, will be forced to sell oil cheaper, which should lead to a general reduction in prices. The proposal of Poland and the Baltic States to make a ceiling of $30 is only in line with their political expectations. The main problem now is to convince Russia and Russian companies to work according to this scheme, not to drastically reduce exports. They want Russian exports not to suffer in terms of volumes, but their value has significantly decreased, not immediately, but over the next year.”