WASHINGTON — Russia may be getting more revenue from its fossil fuels now than shortly before its invasion of Ukraine, as global price increases offset the impact of Western efforts to restrict its sales, US energy security envoy Amos Hochstein told lawmakers during a hearing on Thursday .
While those moves put a chill on global trade in Russian fossil fuels, they also helped to trigger a surge in global prices of oil and gas. Prices for Brent crude on Thursday were near a three-month high above US$123 a barrel. The International Energy Agency said in May that Russia’s oil revenue was up 50 per cent since the beginning of the year to US$20 billion a month, with the EU taking the biggest share of its exports. The EU’s ban on Russian oil, expected to take full effect at the end of the year , could cut that revenue.
Hochstein said he believes there is a “ceiling” to how much oil India will buy from Russia, without providing details.