By Adedapo Adesanya
The European Union (EU) reached an agreement late Monday to ban 90 per cent of Russian oil by the end of the year.
The agreement also resolves a deadlock after Hungary initially held up talks about the proposed ban which is the sixth of its kind since Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukraine, on February 24.
Hungary is a major user of Russian oil and its leader, Mr Viktor Orban, has been on friendly terms with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Mr Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said the move would immediately hit 75 per cent of Russian oil imports.
“The European Council agrees that the sixth package of sanctions against Russia will cover crude oil, as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into the Member States, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline,” according to a statement from the European Council on Tuesday.
The European Council added that in case of “sudden interruptions” of supply, “emergency measures” will be introduced to ensure the security of supply.
Adding her input, European Commission President Ms Ursula von der Leyen said that the temporary exception covers the remaining Russian oil not yet banned.
“We have agreed that the Council will revert to the topic as soon as possible in one way or the other. So this is a topic where we will come back to and where we will still have to work on, but this is a big step forward, what we did today,” she said, referring to the temporary exemption.
Ms Von der Leyen explained that the temporary exemption was granted so that Hungary, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic — all connected to the southern leg of the pipeline — have access that they cannot easily replace.
With this, the market will further tighten as roughly 36 per cent of the EU’s oil imports come from Russia.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, OPEC+ is expected to stick to its original plan of a modest increase of 432,000 barrels a day for July.
Modupe Gbadeyanka