War Through Oil – The West vs Russia
The West and Russia are currently in a heated economic conflict that could boil over in some nasty ways. Ever since the war between Russia and Ukraine officially started, the West placed a massive number of sanctions on Russia to crumble its economy and force the war to end. Russian resources are very valuable to the world, making this a problem for nations directly linked to the country economically like the European Union – and Russia has used this to its advantage. The best example of economic success in Russia as of late must be oil, with Russia influencing OPEC to play into its hands by cutting oil production to keep prices high. This raises the price for countries to purchase oil, which they do anyway due to strong demand, and these prices are then reflected on the consumer.
Because of this oil loophole, Western nations are looking to place tough sanctions on Russia including a cap on Russian oil that will prevent them from getting revenue through the resource. However, Russia obviously retaliated, saying they would hold back as much supply as possible if that’s the case. It becomes a game of tit-for-tat between the two sides, with the West proposing something that would hurt Russia and Russia counter-proposing something that would hurt the entire globe. Brent crude is reaching $100 per barrel for the first time in a few months, and experts believe that the price could shoot higher if Russia went through with that threat. This situation is creating problems for diesel prices in Europe, where problems are arising from an ongoing strike in France which is dwindling stockpiles. This problem with diesel will likely spread to the rest of the globe, creating another unnecessary headache for consumers to deal with.
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I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.