Sanctions started to be eased

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Kommersant FM about the 7th package of sanctions.

The EU is introducing oil concessions to stabilize the market after the refusal of Russian crude oil, Sergey Kondratyev notes:

So far, there is a clear pattern: the lower the trade turnover in a particular sector, the more willingly countries impose fairly tough sanctions.

And now the most intensive restrictions are placed by the states that, even without sanctions, have very modest supplies from Russia, because it is quite difficult to quickly replace certain types of resources. So, despite the fact that the British restrictions sound rather menacing, in reality they affect export earnings minimally. And, on the contrary, the restrictions on the part of Germany, Russia’s largest trading partner in the European Union, look much more modest compared to the British ones, and the deadlines for their implementation have been shifted to a rather distant future, in particular, on oil supplies to the spring of 2023.

The economic consequences of the restrictions being introduced, and most importantly, the extent to which they will actually be implemented, depend on the availability of an alternative to Russian supplies.

I think that before the spring of 2023, we are unlikely to see any strong effects from sanctions in relation to the oil and gas sector.