Rabat – Russia on Friday revealed plans to cut its crude oil output in March by 5% — 500,000 barrels a day — in response to the suffocating Western sanctions against the East European country.
“Russia will voluntarily reduce production by 500,000 barrels per day in March,” CNN quoted the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novakas saying, adding that his country’s move “will contribute to the restoration of market relations.”
Russia’s decision comes after the West imposed price caps on the country’s oil and oil products, with Novak stressing that his country “will not sell oil to those who directly or indirectly adhere to the principles of the price ceiling.”
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister described the West’s sanctions as “destructive energy policy.”
This news comes one week after Europe passed its full embargo on Russia energy products. The embargo is the direct result of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, energy products have reached record high prices, with the price of a barrel of crude oil exceeding $110 in March 2022.
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The West’s sanctioning of Russia gas and oil is likely to tip the world economy into a new recession, experts say. The European Union is already heading towards energy shortage.
Analysts suggested that Russia’s decision is a desperate attempt to discourage other countries from taking similar measures against it.
“Russia might be feeling that more and more countries are going to start attempting to use the price cap scheme,” the New York Times quoted Felix Todd, an analyst at pricing data company Argus Media, as saying.
Meanwhile, head of geopolitics at Energy Aspects Richard Bronze said that Russia “would rather give the impression that it is choosing to do so [to cut oil production] or is in control rather than that this is being forced on it by Western governments’ policies.”
