The new round of sanctions imposed by western countries on Russian energy will begin on February 5, when a new price ceiling will be imposed on the export of refined oil products from Russia, including diesel. Bloomberg reported that the member states of the European Union agreed to limit the export price of Russian diesel oil to between US $100 and US $110 per barrel after negotiation, and this plan was also approved by the Group of Seven.

After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February last year, the Western countries imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia. On December 5 last year, the Group of Seven, led by the United States, the European Union and Australia began to set a price ceiling of US $60 per barrel for the export of crude oil by sea to Russia. Under this price limit mechanism, if Russian crude oil is transported at a price higher than US $60 per barrel, the shipping and insurance services provided by western insurance companies and shipping companies will not be available.

Not only that, these western countries also agreed to implement similar price limit orders for Russian refined oil from February 5 this year to further limit Russian energy income. The price limit order will set two price limits for Russian refined oil, one for diesel and other products with higher price than crude oil, and the other for fuel oil and other products with lower price than crude oil.

According to the previous proposal of the European Commission, the price ceiling for Russian diesel oil is $100 per barrel, and the price ceiling for fuel oil is $45 per barrel. The two price caps will take effect from February 5, but the refined oil purchased before and unloaded before April 1 will receive a grace period. The Group of Seven (G7) advocates that the price ceiling of Russian diesel oil export be set at the range of US $100 to US $110 per barrel to avoid the shortage of supply in the international diesel market.

From the 27th, representatives of EU member states began to consult on the price limit scheme proposed by the European Commission. The member states first need to reach an agreement within the EU, and also need to obtain the consent of the Group of Seven.

In response to the price limit order of western countries, Russia has previously introduced counter-measures and announced that the supply of petroleum products to countries implementing the price limit order will be banned from February 1 this year.

European countries stepped up the purchase of diesel from Russia

With the approaching of the price limit for Russian refined oil on February 5, European countries have recently begun to accelerate the pace of procurement. According to the data, the EU purchased about 220 million barrels of diesel oil from Russia last year, accounting for half of its total diesel imports. Since this year, European countries have purchased more than 600000 barrels of diesel oil from Russia every day, far higher than the level of the same period last year.