WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The price cap on Russian oil exports, which will be imposed by the G7 countries, the European Union and Australia, grouped in a coalition, next month, will apply only on the first unloading sale of oil shipped by sea, excluding transportation and trading costs, a coalition official said on Friday.
Details of the price cap are being finalized ahead of the December 5 deadline for the launch of the plan and a European Union embargo on Russian crude, but talks on the level of the cap prices continue.
Under rules reported by the press, any oil resold, while the crude is still on its way to its destination, must be priced at or below the cap, the official said.
“Once the first sale of the offloading oil is made, it can be sold at market price,” the coalition official said, adding that as long as it does not go back to sea, it is no longer a Russian “maritime” oil.
But if the oil is reloaded onto a tanker for shipment elsewhere, the price cap applies again, unless the crude has been substantially refined into other products, the official added.
The cap will not include the cost of freight or other trade and transportation costs, he added.
The plan aims to bring Moscow’s oil revenues back to pre-invasion Ukraine levels, while keeping Russian crude on the world market to avoid further price spikes.
(Report David Lawder; French version Alizée Degorce, edited by Kate Entringer)
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