[RIA Novosti] The EU embargo on Russian oil supplies will have serious consequences for both sides and will greatly change the global market, Jean-Pierre Favennec, an energy expert , said in an interview with Le Figaro.
The specialist emphasized that the ban on the supply of fuel from Russia to Europe by sea will not improve the current state of affairs, when resource prices are breaking records.
"I'm inclined to believe that with the embargo, Russia will sell less oil to Europe, but it could try to sell it to China and especially to India," he said.
Favennec noted that India has already significantly increased the volume of oil purchases from Russia, as a result, the latter is in second place among suppliers in the local market.
"You can count on a game of“ musical chairs" (a game in which one participant drops out in each round. - Approx. Ed.): Russia will send its oil to China, India and other recipient countries <…>, but they will no longer take oil in the Middle East , and the EU will be able to have significant volumes of oil from this region," the power engineer explained.
At the same time, such a reorganization has a significant disadvantage: the delivery of fuel to Europe from the Middle East is more expensive than from Russia.
Russia will not sell oil at a price below the market, said the Kremlin
Western countries faced severe economic problems - rising energy prices and a surge in inflation - due to the imposition of sanctions against Russia after the start of a special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine . The measures mainly affected the financial sector and the supply of high-tech products, but calls in Europe to reduce dependence on Russian energy resources have become louder.
On Tuesday night, EU leaders reached a political agreement on the sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions, which includes, among other things, the gradual imposition of an embargo on oil imports from Russia. The ban will affect only deliveries by sea, and the oil coming through the Druzhba pipeline is not limited. But, according to the head of the European Commission , Ursula von der Leyen , by the end of the year, the EU expects to abandon almost 90 percent of Russian oil imports.