US increased purchases of oil from Russia

24.05.2019
USA

In the first half of May, American companies bought five million barrels of "Urals" oil - a volume comparable to the cumulative oil exports from Russia to the United States from January to April 2019.

The reasons

The result was a shortage of heavy sulfur oil in the United States due to the sanctions imposed on Iran and Venezuela. In the USA, there is enough light low-sulfur oil (mainly WTI), but it is not enough for the current needs of the United States.

Inadequate US policy

Major US oil companies - Citgo Petroleum, Valero Energy and Chevron are already suffering losses due to the actions of the Donald Trump' administration. From April 28, oil supplies from Venezuela completely stopped. Since Saudi Arabia and Iraq also reduced the production of sour crude oil, Russia quickly filled the vacuum.

Shot in the own leg

The situation itself is paradoxical, since Russia is also on the US sanctions list. However, this does not prevent American companies from buying Russian oil. It is assumed that if the sanctions against Venezuela and Iran are continued, then the volume of Russian oil supplies to the US market will increase threefold by the end of the year. Meanwhile, supporters of tough measures against Russia in the United States had previously offered the establishment to bring down the oil economy of Russia, which is connected with the Russian state budget and the military-industrial complex. As you can see, such a scenario is impossible. Moreover, now Russia has an instrument of pressure on the United States in the form of oil supplies.

Related links
Iranian Oil and European Independence
Collapse of the US Oil Industry
Oil
Russia
USA
Urals
sanctions
Venezuela
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