Russia has enough energy buyers despite sanctions

Russia has enough buyers for its oil and gas despite sanctions imposed by Western countries and their allies in response to the invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior Kremlin official.

“We will not persuade anyone to buy our oil and gas”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a briefing in Turkey on Thursday after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Kuleba. “If they want to replace it with something, let them do it, we will have supply markets, we already have them”.

The statement comes as Europe, the largest single buyer of Russian energy, assesses the likelihood of gas supply disruptions as the war with Ukraine continues. The continent, which relies on Russia for about 30% of the gas it consumes, is trying to reduce that dependency by turning to new supplies, improving efficiency and using more renewable energy.

The United States has banned imports of oil and other fossil fuels from Russia, a move that has pushed up the prices of commodities from energy to metals to grains.

The United Kingdom followed suit, but only partially, as it fell short of imposing a full embargo on gas imports.

Other European countries, which have been dealing with a supply crisis for months, have been reluctant to take similar steps. Instead, oil companies and crude traders have imposed sanctions on themselves and even withdrawn from operations in Russia altogether.

Russia, which currently ships natural gas to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline, has been in talks with the Asian nation over another major long-term deal for supplies through Mongolia.

Currently, the Russian gas pipeline infrastructure is not capable of redirecting gas flows to the east and west. However, if an agreement is reached, an interconnector will be built, which will lessen Russia’s dependence on European purchases of its energy.