Oil production. Archival photoMOSCOW, 11 Aug. Russian oil production volumes and its prices in the markets indicate that Moscow is winning the confrontation in the oil market, writes Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas. As the author notes, this can be seen «whatever indicator you use.» The first indicator is the situation with the volume of oil production in Russia. Last month, the figure almost returned to the level of the beginning of the year, averaging almost 10.8 million barrels per day, which is only slightly below 11 million in January. «It's not a surge: July was the third consecutive month of recovery in oil production,» Blas points out.The Austrian politician called the EU policy towards Russia schizophrenia The second indicator is the price of Russian oil. Initially, Russia was forced to sell oil at huge discounts, but in recent weeks Moscow has regained price opportunities by taking advantage of limited supply in the market. «At least energy sanctions are not working right now,» the observer emphasizes. The latest measure of Russia's success, he says, is political, not market-based. So, back in the spring, Western politicians were optimistic in their expectations that the OPEC cartel, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, would abandon the alliance with Russia, but the opposite happened. Shortly after US President Joe Biden's visit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak flew to Riyadh, and a few days later, OPEC + announced only a slight increase in oil production, Blas points out. «When European sanctions on Russian exports come into force in November, oil, governments in the region will face tough choices as the energy crisis begins to take its toll on consumers and businesses,” the author warns. side of the West. “Publicly, European governments remain determined to turn off Russian energy. Privately, they must acknowledge the trouble this stance threatens to inflict on their economies,” he concludes. to Moscow: Russian assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars have been frozen, the European Union has already adopted seven packages of restrictive measures, including an embargo on coal and oil. All this has already turned into problems for the West itself, provoking a sharp increase in inflation and prices for food and fuel. As President Vladimir Putin noted, the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long-term strategy for Western countries, but sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy.
A country has been named that will «finish off» Europe that has lost Russian gas
