Zelenskiy calls on trader Vitol to stop shipping Russian blood oil

No one doubts there will be lasting harm to Russia’s economy from sanctions. Russia’s industrial production dropped by 1.7 percent year-on-year in May. And there will be severe lost economic opportunities from the estimated 300,000 Russians who’ve fled and chosen political exile, many of them IT workers. Meanwhile, soaring energy prices are compounding a serious cost-of-living squeeze for Western households, fueling inflation. Price growth in the eurozone hit a record high of 8.6 percent in the year to June, thanks partly to a sharp acceleration of energy and food prices because of sanctions and the supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India has ramped up imports of Russian oil since the start of the war. U.S. goods imports from Russia totaled $22.3 billion in 2019, up 6.8% ($1.4 billion) tio markets review from 2018, and up 22.3% from 2009. Traders talk as they stand inside Russia’s Rossiiskaya Birzha Futures and Commodities Exchange June 2, 1998.

In 2021, the total trade in goods between the EU and Russia amounted to €257.5 billion. The EU’s imports were worth €158.5 billion and were dominated by fuel and mining products – especially mineral fuels (€98.9 billion, 62%), wood (€3.16 billion, 2.0%), iron and steel (€7.4 billion, 4.7%), fertilisers (1.78 bn, 1.1%). In 2020, the EU was Russia’s first trade partner, accounting for 37.3% of the country’s total trade in goods with the world. 36.5% of Russia’s imports came from the EU and 37.9% of its exports went to the EU.

Along with the government of Bashar al-Assad, Western-backed rebels and international relief organizations bought oil from the Islamic State terror group. They didn’t have much option, but in effect it meant Western governments were indirectly funding the terror group while at the same time bombing it. Sometimes trading with the enemy is official policy — as it was during the Crimean War, with the British Cabinet making careful calculations about what commerce with Russia was expedient and wouldn’t assist the Russian war effort.

Overall Trade Restrictiveness Index OTRI 2009

Russia was the United States’ 40th largest goods export market in 2019. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest stories in hedge funds, PE, fintech, and banking — delivered daily to your inbox. Live from New York and Hong Kong, bringing you the essential stories from the close of the U.S. markets to the open of trading across Asia. You can access all of your notes and highlights by logging into your account. Among the other big traders, Swiss duo Glencore and Gunvor — once among the leading Russian offtakers — have both shrunk their volumes to a fraction of what they once were. Neither Trafigura nor Vitol comment on their ongoing trading activities in Russia.

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Trafigura has been Rosneft’s strategic partner for more than eight years, during which time it has entered into multiple offtake deals. And in late 2020 it paid around $8.5 billion for a 10% stake in the Rosneft-led Vostok oil development in the Arctic. In February 2022, following further military aggression in Ukraine by Russia, the EU adoptedadditional sanctionstargeting the energy, transport, technology and financial sectors, forex brokers as well as imposing restrictive measures on individuals. In August 2014, Russia reacted by introducing a political ban on imports of a range of EU agricultural and food products. In 2021, Russia was the EU’s fifth largest trade partner, representing 5.8% of the EU’s total trade in goods with the world. Discover POLITICO ProIn-depth reporting, data and actionable intelligence for policy professionals – all in one place.

Rezanov helped to promote the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth (1803–06) and sailed from Kronstadt with the expedition, commanded by Adam Johann Krusenstern, westward around Cape Horn to Kamchatka. After visiting Japan in 1804 on an unsuccessful mission as Emperor Alexander I’s ambassador, he remained in the North Pacific with imperial orders to correct abuses within the company. Russian-American Company, which played a major part in the history of Alaska and of the North Pacific. He wished to annex the western coast of North America to Russia and to encourage large-scale emigration of Russians into that area. After his early death, the Russian government did little to realize his plans, a failure that led indirectly to the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States in 1867.

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TRADE SUMMARY FOR RUSSIA

That made it possible to offer wheat from the Black Sea with higher protein. It was also to this destination for Demetra, controlled by Russia’s second largest bank VTB. “Without Russian gas, which is about 40% of their gas supply or their demand for gas, it’s really difficult to see how the market balances without running out of gas.”

“If Russia shuts off the gas and oil, Europe is going to be scrambling this winter to maintain heating, and just maintain their economies,” he said. The shipments in June were made from ports including Ust-Luga near the Estonian border and St Petersburg on the Baltic Sea, and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. The shipments reached European hubs including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, from where the oil may have been moved on to other countries. On behalf of the president, Zelenskiy’s chief economic adviser, Oleg Ustenko, asked Vitol to state when it would ship its last barrel of Russian oil and how much oil it would ship until that date. The Russian trader, Ivan Solovief, arms his workers to murder Unangan men, women, and children in retaliation for their resistance to the sexual exploitation of Unangan women. The workers go to Umnak, Unalaska, and Kodiak Islands, where they systematically kill people and enslave young women and men.

Soaring prices buffet Europe

Demetra, one of the largest grain traders in Russia, has supplied 60,000 tonnes of wheat to Algeria, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Sign Up NowGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. “This is a clear escalation of risks in gas markets,” analysts at MUFG said in a research note Thursday, describing the Russian ban as a “major turning point for European gas markets.” “It’s a dicey market right now,” Perkins, CEO and head trader at Skylar Capital Management, told CNBC. Oil firms have been under pressure to cut ties with Russia since the start of the war.

During the Napoleonic Wars there was brisk commerce between the diehard foes, with the British Admiralty buying brandy from the French to ensure naval ratings still could get their “daily tot” when rum was in short supply. Punitive economic sanctions on Russia appear best free options trading course to be having the reverse effect to what was intended. They seem inadvertently to be helping the Kremlin rather than hindering it, while in the meantime hurting Western economies, risking a political backlash from European voters and erosion of support for Ukraine.

BP has promised to sell off its stake in Russian state-backed Rosneft, while Shell is also selling its Russian assets. Last week Vladimir Putin signed a decree that could force Shell to abandon its stake in a huge Russian gas plant. Russia is the world’s third biggest oil producer after the US and Saudi Arabia.

French election 2022Latest news, analysis and comment on the French election in 2022 and beyond. GermanyLatest news, analysis and comment on German politics and beyond. BrusselsLatest news, analysis and comment from POLITICO’s editors and guest writers in Europe. One of the great dirty secrets of war is that enemies, while slaughtering each other, often continue to trade for political, economic and moral interests — and even for military reasons. “Diversifying our supply markets is part of our growth strategy,” he said.

Europe is still weighing a full ban on Russian imports, despite its broad reliance on Russia for energy. European energy ministers are expected to discuss next steps at a meeting in France as soon as Monday next week, according to a recent Reuters report. Last year, EU nations imported 155 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas, which is around 45% of their total imports and almost 40% of their total gas consumption, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency. U.S. imports of services from Russia were an estimated $1.8 billion in 2019, 2.2% ($38 million) more than 2018, and 50.6% less than 2009 levels. Leading services imports from Russia to the U.S. were in the transportation, travel, and financial services sectors. U.S. exports of services to Russia were an estimated $5.1 billion in 2019, 4.8% ($237 million) more than 2018, and 7.7% greater than 2009 levels.

Alfa Laval Gas Combustion Unit at Alfa Laval Test & Training Centre

Sometimes governments turn a blind eye — or are collusive — to what smuggling networks and profiteers are doing. In-depth reporting, data and actionable intelligence for policy professionals – all in one place. Vitol said in April it would not enter into any new Russian crude and products transactions. In early June a shipment of more than 1m barrels of oil from Novorossiysk was chartered to Jamnagar, the Indian oil refinery.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on the world’s largest independent oil trader to stop shipping Russian oil, accusing it of “brazen profiteering from blood oil”. U.S. foreign direct investment in Russia was $14.4 billion in 2019, a 2.6% increase from 2018. U.S. direct investment in Russia is led by manufacturing, wholesale trade, and information services. The United States has a services trade surplus of an estimated $3.4 billion with Russia in 2019, up 6.3% from 2018. A Russian trader watches as his colleague speaks on a phone during a morning session at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange September 23, 1998. The rouble fell in the last few weeks but stabilised in recent days and stands around 15.80 to the dollar in electronic trading on MICEX.

The board of directors of Rossiiskaya Birzha will hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss its settlement problems, including standard bankruptcy procedures, a trader at the exchange said. Reaching San Francisco in April 1806, he was told that Spanish colonies were forbidden by law to enter into foreign trade. Rezanov, however, gained the support of the Spanish clergy and became affianced to the San Francisco commandante’s daughter, said to be the most beautiful girl in California. Rezanov returned to Sitka with a shipload of food, and with the promise of the Spanish governor, Don José Argüello, to forward a copy of the proposed treaty to Spain. Giant Lukoil sells most of its barrels via its Geneva-based subsidiary Litasco, while Gazprom Neft has a trading arm in Vienna. Under its new CEO Gary Nagle, Glencore is also downscaling its Russian asset portfolio.

The US has banned Russian oil imports and the UK intends to phase them out by the end of this year. Vitol has a stake in Vostok Oil, a vast oil and gas oil project in the Arctic in Russia. Vitol said it had agreed to sell its shares and was “in the process of completing the legal formalities” for the sale. Russia was the United States’ 20th largest supplier of goods imports in 2019.

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But shipping data show that those volumes are starting to drop off as well as more oil is sold directly to end-users, especially in India and China, or via Russian-owned intermediaries in Switzerland and elsewhere. Most Western majors have slashed their purchases of Russian crude in response to the war in Ukraine, leaving large trading firms and a batch of smaller players as the primary buyers among a dwindling customer base. Unauthorized access or electronic forwarding, even for internal use, is prohibited.

Leading services exports from the U.S. to Russia were in the financial services, travel, and intellectual property sectors. Russia represents almost 90% of the EAEU’s GDP. The EAEU has legal competence in policy areas such as customs, competition, trade defence, agricultural and industrial product regulation, intellectual property rights and foreign trade. At the same time, semi-uniform EAEU technical regulations lack enforcement mechanisms and create additional barriers for trade. The EU foreign direct investment outward stock in Russia in 2019 amounted to €311.4 billion, while Russia’s FDI stock in the EU was estimated at €136 billion. Since 1997, the EU’s political and economic relations with Russia have been based on a bilateralPartnership and Cooperation Agreement. The trade-relevant sections of the PCA aim to promote trade and investment, as well as to develop mutually beneficial economic relations.

Instead, Russia has progressively put in place numerous measures favouring domestic products and services over foreign ones, and incentivising localisation of production in Russia by foreign companies. Two-way trade in services between the EU and Russia in 2020 amounted to €29.4 billion, with EU imports of services from Russia representing €8.9 billion and exports of services to Russia accounting for €20.5 billion. Sometimes, because of tight commercial interdependence between adversaries, barring essential trade could undermine the sanctioning country’s ability to conduct war. European policymakers have pushed back on Putin’s demand, saying it violates existing contracts already agreed in dollars or euros.

Please note the exports, imports and tariff data are based on reported data and not gap filled. The Geneva-based oil trader said in April that volumes of Russian oil handled “will diminish significantly in the second quarter as current term contractual obligations decline” and that it planned to “retreat from the Russian market”. It expects to have stopped transporting Russian crude by the end of the year. U.S. goods and services trade with Russia totaled an estimated $34.9 billion in 2019.

Russia’s revenues from oil and gas continue to increase andare predictedto hit $285 billion this year, thanks partly to high- sales to Asian markets, which make up for the deeply discounted prices Russia has been selling at. Indian dealers have been making large profits selling on the Russian crude oil to Western concerns, according to reports. Russia is currently our 26th largest goods trading partner with $28.0 billion in total goods trade during 2019. Goods exports totaled $5.8 billion; goods imports totaled $22.3 billion.

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Trafigura continues to lift Urals crude sourced from Rosneft from the Baltic port of Primorsk and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, as well as Espo blend from the Kozmino terminal on Russia’s Pacific Coast. But volumes have started to shrink over the past week, according to port data. “Of course, they will continue to lift Russian oil, but it will become harder for them to justify,” a veteran Russian trader told Energy Intelligence. “You will probably see smaller operators enter the picture who have much less to lose.”

While the situation is dramatically different today, the photos below, from Reuters, offer a glimpse of what it was like on the trading floors in Moscow during the summer of 1998. Switzerland has for decades been home to middlemen helping to match Russian producers with buyers all over the world. Now, a ratcheting up of sanctions is prompting a migration to the emirate in the Persian Gulf.

Traders in Focus as Majors Bow Out of Russia

Today, the EU is requesting consultations with Russia at the World Trade Organization concerning export restrictions placed by Russia on wood products. The country long ago became adept at import substitution, schooled by the waves of sanctions that have hit it since the Kremlin’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea. Have moved to ban Russian energy imports, but European countries with a high dependency on Russian supply, like Germany, have been reluctant to follow. Germany has indicated it could wean itself off of Russian oil by the end of the year.

The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with Russia was $13.1 billion in 2019. A security officer changes the currency rates on an exchange office poster August 27, 1998. Russia’s central bank suspended foreign exchange trade of the rouble on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange on Thursday after opening trade showed the currency was headed for a sharp drop. Sign reads “No Currency” meaning the bank will not sell foreign currency. A dealer trades at Moscow International Currency Exchange July 3, 1998.