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I'm not going to claim to be an expert on this matter but I don't really understand how Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries which turn crude oil into refined oils such as gasoline, will affect global fuel prices on crude oil and to me I wonder if Ukraine is being scapegoated as the easy thing to blame once again by the greedy oil industry.
Ukraine has been hitting refineries only, not crude oil fields, Russia barely exports refined oil nowadays as they need it for domestic usage, they're still capable of crude oil exports, the oil prices can be increasing for multiple reasons and not limited to Ukraine striking oil refineries. I've read from others that these attacks shouldn't affect the global market much as well.
"Since Russian import capacity for refined oil products is limited in the short run, since they're set up to export, it's actually a fairly clever way of causing disruption in the Russian market with limited impact globally," Aslak Berg, Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.
"The Ukrainians have been hitting refineries, not Russian crude oil production or export facilities. This causes problems for Russia's domestic market for refined products, but for the rest of the world, a decline in Russia's exports of products will be compensated for by increased exports of crude oil," Berg explained.
On top of that, Russia banned gasoline exports (refined oils) before these regular attacks so Ukraine is striking something which Russia wasn't exporting anyway?
Russia Bans Gasoline Exports For 6 Months From March 1 | Reuters
Their crude oil is useless to them if they can't convert it to gasoline, diesel, etc. If they lose that ability to convert domestic oil for domestic use that hurts Russia a lot more than it hurts America and Europe, they then have to decide what to do with their crude oil since they can't refine it anymore, they aren't going to leave it in limited storage, thus they will more likely sell it, they will be desperate for cash and increase crude oil exports since they can no longer refine, thus that should decrease the global prices of crude oil, no?
Also...
The Kremlin has been working with Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, to keep prices high as part of the broader OPEC+ grouping which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and key allies.
Seems the blame should be targeted towards OPEC.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 07 April 2024
