President Joe Biden said the decision to halt Russian imports was intended to deal ‘another powerful blow’ to Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
| The US has banned Russian oil, gas and coal imports under new sanctions imposed by the Biden administration, with Britain following suit on oil and the European Union vowing to slash its reliance on Russian gas.
Britain will phase out oil imports from Russia, which makes up 8 per cent of its total consumption, by the end of this year, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said. Russian coal accounts for about 5 per cent of US imports or roughly 280,000 tonnes of the 5 million tonnes imported. Total coal imports made up about 1 per cent of US coal consumption in 2020.
Shell would now “in a phased manner” stop buying “all Russian hydrocarbons, crude oil, petroleum products, gas and liquefied natural gas” and also shut its service stations and fuelling operations in Russia. International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said members of his organisation were on standby to release more oil from their emergency stockpiles, to rein in the soaring price.. “We are monitoring the markets, and we are ready to release more oil from stocks.”
“Biden’s decision to ban US imports of Russian oil is noteworthy, but movement toward a European ban on imports of Russian oil and gas would be the real show-stopper, given Europe’s relatively high dependence on energy supplies from Russia,” Mr McMann said.“Such a move, if it materialises, would have major economic and geopolitical ramifications.”