The price of oil has risen significantly. Brent crude oil from the North Sea has risen by over 5 percent - several times during the day its price exceeded the mark of 66 dollars per barrel (159 liters). The increase in American crude oil is within the same range - by 5.1% to 61.5 dollars per barrel. According to analysts from Deutsche Bank, oil prices have achieved their highest growth in one day since July.
Experts see the reasons for the increase in the price of the raw material in the new US sanctions against the Russian energy sector. The two largest Russian oil companies are affected - the state-owned concerns “Rosneft" and" Lukoil", as well as their subsidiaries controlled by them.
So far, Russia has gotten away with it
All assets of these companies in the United States will now be frozen. American citizens and companies cannot conduct transactions with them unless they have a special license. With this step, the Trump administration surprised the markets, emphasizes stock market expert Robert Retfeld of Wellenreiter-Invest. The aim of the new US sanctions is to reduce Russia's revenues from the oil business, with which the country finances its aggressive war against Ukraine.
Despite all the sanctions so far, Russia continues to be one of the largest players in the oil market. The country is the world's second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, German public broadcaster ARD recalls.
Secondary sanctions on India?
But it's not just Russia and its oil companies that are under increasing pressure, but also buyers of Russian oil. India in particular. US President Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him by phone on Tuesday that India "would not buy much oil from Russia" because he too wanted "the war between Russia and Ukraine to end".
So-called secondary sanctions from the US are now on the agenda, i.e. sanctions against foreign financial institutions and companies that do business with Russian oil companies.
During the war against Ukraine, Russia has become India's largest supplier of oil. In the first nine months of this year, India received about 1.7 million barrels of Russian oil per day - with the help of the so-called Russian "shadow fleet". In total, from December 2022 to the end of September this year, India purchased about 38 percent of all Russian oil exports. Only China bought even more - 47 percent, according to data from the independent research institute Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
India's huge purchases of Russian oil have long been a thorn in Trump's side. They are one of the main reasons why the US president imposed punitive tariffs of 50 percent on Indian imports to the US in August.
Author: Angela Göpfert (ARD)