Backdoor Latvian blend keeps Russian oil flowing into Europe

R&I – TxPAT ___

 

London, April 10 (IANS) European energy companies are finding workarounds to keep Russian crude flowing while placating public opinion, a media report said.

The point is to market a barrel in which only 49.99% comes from Russia; in Shell’s eyes, as long as the other 50.01 percent is sourced elsewhere, the oil cargo isn’t technically of Russian origin, the Bloomberg report said.

The maneouvre underpins a burgeoning and opaque market for blended Russian diesel and other refined petroleum products, one of the many that oil companies and commodity traders are using to keep Russian energy flowing into Europe while at the same time satisfying public opinion that demands an end to subsidizing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine, Bloomberg reported.

As Europe has stopped short of applying any limits or penalties to the purchase of Russian oil, gas or coal, selling the novel blend is perfectly legal. If Shell and others followed European rules to the letter, they could buy cargoes of 100 per cent Russian origin.

But blending is a convenient tool for companies to publicly say one thing (phase out Russian molecules) and do another (buy lots of Russian molecules), the report said.

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