Price cap on Russian oil created obstacles in energy markets: Chevron

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Mar 2023 22:21

The oil magnate noted that he does not see the prospect for European countries to ever become dependent on Russian oil again.

The logo for Chevron appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 1, 2021 (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

During a conference at CERAWeek on Monday, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said that the Russian price cap has generated an excessive amount of obstacles in standard operations for global energy markets.

"There's not a lot of swing capacity, there's not a lot of inventory capacity, so a little bit and the system normally optimizes within those parameters, but there's now a lot of constraints: you can't sell to this country, you can't buy from that country, can't insure," Wirth said, adding that he does not see the prospect of Europe to become a dependent consumer of Russian gas ever again.

.@Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on future #energy and #climate challenges: “This industry does ‘difficult’ every day. … The solutions will come from innovation, technology, ingenuity. There’s never been a more exciting time to do that than today.” #CERAWeek pic.twitter.com/kA1tn3rE5E
— American Petroleum Institute (@APIenergy) March 6, 2023

On December 5, 2022, EU states and the G7 agreed to cap Russian oil at $60 per barrel and review the price every two months for the price to remain 5% below the International Energy Agency benchmark.

In retaliation to the price cap, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on February 1 to ban the sales of crude oil to countries abiding by the Western-led price cap on Russian oil.