We’re still buying Russian oil – we’re just paying more for it

In a country blessed with enough energy to meet our needs, short-sighted, green-fear, globalist liberals have decided to rely on other countries, instead.

Virtue-signaling as ever, the Biden Administration banned oil imports from Russia as a pathetic protest over the Ukraine invasion. (It also stopped the Keystone pipeline, a seriously retrograde move.)

Now we all know how this works. Some smart country – a neutral one – in this case India – buys it up in record amounts, adds a markup and sells it on to the U.S. U.S. and EU sanctions on Russian oil exports “do not apply to refined products produced from Russian crude exported from a third country as they are not of Russian origin”.

In fact, while under new ownership much of it doesn’t even go through India. Instead it’s shipped straight from Russia and Indian companies mark it up and keep the profit.

The US had been a big buyer of Russia’s virgin gas oil (VGO). But as it cannot now purchase VGO directly from Russia, it is purchasing it from Reliance Energy and Nayara Energy, in India, which prepare the VGO from Russian crude oil. The US is buying 200,000 bpd of finished products, primarily VGO from Reliance.  “The biggest destination country of Indian products is surprisingly the United States. And the biggest exporters into the United States are Reliance and Nayara,” said Katona. Read more at The Wire(India)

Genuis. Great move, Joe.