WASHINGTON- The United States is open to imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas flows but going after its exports now could help Moscow, the White House said on Wednesday as oil prices surged to an 11-year high and supply disruptions mounted.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House slapped sanctions on exports of technologies to Russia’s refineries and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which has never launched. So far, it has stopped short of targeting Russia’s oil and gas exports as the Biden administration weighs the impacts on global oil markets and US energy prices.
“We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing global supply of energy … that would raise prices at the gas pump for Americans,” spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said at a White House news briefing.
The administration warned it could block Russian oil if Moscow heightens aggression against Ukraine. “It’s very much on the table, but we need to weigh what all of the impacts will be,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told MSNBC earlier on Wednesday.
The National Economic Council’s deputy director, Bharat Ramamurti, told MSNBC that the White House does not want to make a move just yet.
“Going after Russian oil and gas at this point would have an effect on US consumers and actually could be counterproductive in terms of raising the price of oil and gas internationally, which could mean more profits for the Russian oil industry,” he said.
“So we don’t want to go there right now.”
The White House deputy national security adviser, Daleep Singh, told CNN the Biden administration was looking at cutting US consumption of Russian oil while maintaining the global supply of energy.
“There are other producers in the world that could backfill for any Russian oil we don’t import,” Singh said. – Reuters
