LONDON, March 10. /TASS/. The US has privately urged some of the world’s largest commodity traders to continue supplies of price-capped Russian oil, the Financial Times wrote on Thursday citing sector sources.
"We’ve been actively encouraged by the Americans·<…>·to re-engage on moving the oil [originated from Russia]," one trader told the newspaper.
US Department of Treasury officials met executives and traders at Trafigura and Gunvor among others and offered reassurances over expanding their role in Russian crude and fuels trade without breaching western restrictions, according to FT.
Such meetings were held in recent weeks, particularly on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, this week, the publication said.
"It’s up to individual companies to make their own decisions. Our goal is to communicate what is allowed under the price cap architecture," one Biden administration official told the paper, adding that the discussions focused on the structure of the market.
On December 5, 2022, an embargo on maritime Russian oil shipments to the European Union came into force. G7 nations, the EU and Australia agreed on a price cap for Russian oil delivered by sea, setting the ceiling at $60 a barrel. Moreover, starting February 5, 2023, similar restrictions on deliveries of petroleum products from Russia were enforced as the EU Council officially greenlighted the decision, in conjunction with the G7, to introduce a price ceiling on Russian petroleum products supplied by sea at $100 for premium oil and at $45 for discount.