China will take advantage of Russia’s energy dilemma, EU says

The European Union’s top trade official said China will exploit Russia’s need to diversify where it sells its energy, with the bloc set to ban as much as 90% of Moscow’s crude oil imports by year’s end. 

“What we are seeing, especially in this situation of Russia´s weakness, is that China is going to take good advantage of it,” European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told Bloomberg on Wednesday. “It’s not going to be very advantageous for Russia.” 

Dombrovskis said that Russia is currently selling its oil to China at a 35% discount. 

The EU is set to approve its sixth sanctions package against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The latest measures would ban the purchase of crude oil from Russia delivered to member states by sea in six months and refined petroleum products in eight months, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg.

Oil delivered by pipeline would be temporarily exempt from the embargo after the bloc’s leaders reached a compromise on Monday, overcoming weeks-long resistance from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

It’s unlikely to be a straightforward logistical process for a handful of countries such as China and India to take all the Russian crude that Europe previously processed. Oil refineries are often designed to process specific types of barrels, and switching large amounts of them in a short period of time isn’t always easy.

“Regardless of sanctions, the strategic decision to move away from a dependency on Russian fossil fuels is already taken,” Dombrovskis said, in a reference to the EU’s plans to diversify its energy supplies away from Moscow.