LONDON, October 23. /TASS/. The sharp rise in global oil prices following the imposition of sanctions by the US Trump administration against Rosneft and Lukoil underscores market fears that Russian energy exports could decline, Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at the consulting firm Rystad Energy, said in his commentary for TASS.
"The latest US sanctions on Russia’s largest oil producers represent a significant and unprecedented escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Moscow. The sharp rise in oil prices following the announcement underscores market fears that Russian crude exports – particularly to India, one of its key customers – could fall sharply," he said.
According to Leon, "combined with the recent wave of attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, these sanctions raise the prospect of major disruptions to Russian crude production and exports, heightening the risk of forced production shut-ins."
"This increasingly complex geopolitical backdrop could threaten the coherence of the OPEC+ strategy to gradually increase supply. If Russian production is curtailed, Moscow would find it economically and politically unviable to support further output increases within the alliance. Such a scenario could reignite internal tensions within OPEC+, as member countries weigh the need for market stability against their own fiscal imperatives in an environment of heightened uncertainty," the expert added.
On Wednesday, the US Department of the Treasury included oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as 34 subsidiaries of these companies, in a new package of American sanctions.