Britain announced on Tuesday that it will gradually reduce Russian oil imports and stop buying crude from Moscow by the end of this year, according to British Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng.
This “transition” period will offer the British market nine months to adjust to the changes and secure new supply routes once Russian crude and oil derivatives, which represent 8% of British demand, are banned.
Kwarteng advanced that the Government is also exploring the option of vetoing gas purchases as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Kremlin. The UK is “not dependent on natural gas” from Russia, which accounts for just 4% of domestic consumption, he stressed.
During 2022, London will negotiate with the United States, the Netherlands and Middle Eastern states, which already supply the majority of crude oil imports, to expand those deliveries, the minister detailed in a message on social networks.
At the same time, he stressed that the United Kingdom, which extracts oil in the North Sea, among other sources, has a “significant” production capacity of its own, as well as large accumulated reserves.
“The market has already started excluding Russian oil. About 70% of it can no longer find a buyer,” said Kwarteng, who made the announcement on the sidelines of a speech by US President Joe Biden in which notified the ban on imports of oil and gas from Russia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued on Monday against an immediate veto of hydrocarbons from Russia and defended the need to reduce dependence on Moscow “step by step”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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