53
votes
Accepted
Why has Russia declined OPEC's request to cut oil production?
Disclaimer: I'm no expert, this answer is based on my modest understanding of the situation at play.
The OPEC decision to cut oil production was meant to keep prices high: if every OPEC country were ...
- 16.2k
40
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Why can't Hungary import oil from somewhere other than Russia without "ruin[ing] the Hungarian economy"?
All the refineries in Hungary (and in Slovakia) are calibrated to the Ural type of oil coming from Russia. This type is different from the Brent type of oil coming from North Sea, etc.
Adjusting the ...
- 1,923
40
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Accepted
ELI5: Why is Russia's requirement for oil to be paid in Roubles abnormal?
Because the contracts stipulated payments in other currencies (euros, dollars), not roubles.
i.e. all your other arguments are superseded by the fact that these were not the contractual commitments ...
34
votes
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Fact-check: Has the US increased imports of Russian oil?
Sort of - this claim is based on the figures published weekly by the Energy Information Administration. For the week of 03/25/22, the US imported 100,000 barrels per day, up from 70,000 barrels per ...
CDJB♦
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25
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Why has Russia declined OPEC's request to cut oil production?
The reason Russia didn’t want to do a production cut is because the US is not participating in this, since the US is also not part of OPEC and actually leaves all the oil production to market forces ...
- 251
16
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ELI5: Why is Russia's requirement for oil to be paid in Roubles abnormal?
it is more normal/common than otherwise, in international trade, for the importer to pay for goods in the exporter's currency
Not for oil in general (see "petrodollar") and also not for ...
- 145k
15
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Why has Russia declined OPEC's request to cut oil production?
The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, has long been convinced that the OPEC deal "plays into the hands of the United States" by making its shale oil industry profitable. Allegedly he finally managed to ...
- 2,574
14
votes
Why can't Hungary import oil from somewhere other than Russia without "ruin[ing] the Hungarian economy"?
Ruin is relative. Hungarians would certainly take an economic hit. If you look at the oil pipelines in Europe, you can see that they are by and large going east to west, not north to south or south to ...
- 106k
13
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How did US respond to the accusation of "stealing Syrian oil"?
From the New York Times it looks like United States has deserted its pivotal Kurdish ally and ceded most of the territory the Kurds had controlled to Syria, Turkey and Russia. Washington however would ...
- 16.6k
12
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Why didn't the Gulf countries diversify their economy in the last 70 years so that they can become less dependent on oil?
When your economy is based on a single commodity diversification is really difficult. There is one place in your economy where the money is, and the power follows the money. Anything else is going to ...
- 20.7k
12
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ELI5: Why is Russia's requirement for oil to be paid in Roubles abnormal?
Of course it is normal to try tricks to evade economic sanctions during economic war. How it could be else?
You need to sell something for Russia first to get these roubles. With sanctions applied, ...
- 16.6k
10
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Why didn't the Gulf countries diversify their economy in the last 70 years so that they can become less dependent on oil?
They Do.
Saudi Vision 2030 is a strategic framework to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, ...
- 17.2k
10
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How much coal, oil, and natural gas has the U.S. imported from Russia in recent years?
EIA has these percentages for 2020, with Russia shown at 7% of total US petroleum imports:
It's interesting that the US imported 7% of total oil from Russia, but that Russia didn't figure similarly ...
- 145k
10
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Which countries have oil stockpiles?
The discrepancy between production and consumption is due to stock changes, additives, substitutions, and differences in accounting
I took a look at Our World in Data's reports on total oil production ...
- 1,765
10
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Why do Canadians complain more about cost of living than Saudis?
First, the cost to produce oil per barrel is vastly different. Alberta's oil has a pretty high breakeven cost to produce while Saudi's is the cheapest on the planet.
Marginal Production Cost, 2014 (...
9
votes
Can taxes diminish Europe's dependency on Russian oil?
Can (higher) excise taxes, as well as taxes on cars with poor fuel
economy, diminish the dependency of Russian oil?
Taxes create incentives to make different economic decisions than would be made, ...
- 73.4k
8
votes
Why has Russia declined OPEC's request to cut oil production?
One other point not mentioned is Syria. With Russia and its allies gaining the upper hand over Saudi supported forces, this could be considered an opening up an economic front in that conflict.
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7
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Saudis vs Russia on oil: Saudis wanted lower production, but are now doing the opposite. What's going on?
Game theory point of view
We can view it from the game theory point of view, with a simple prisoner's dilemma situation.
Let's keep it simple with only two oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
...
- 329
7
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Why did Saudi Arabia refuse to increase oil production to counter Russia when USA asked them to in February 2022?
Profits.
As was demonstrated by the 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war, a signficant production increase would lead to a market crash, and require significant corrections by all producers to ...
- 3,832
6
votes
Did the sanctions against Russia take into account that oil price might neutralise their effect?
Yes. That is why there are no comperehensive sanctions on oil and gas yet. To make this work, there would have to be sanctions on customers of Russian oil. According to Reuters:
Asked if the United ...
- 106k
6
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Objective arguments to support assertions that Saudi Arabia is "siding with Russia" and not simply just exercising sound fiscal policy?
While the "oil price cap" for Russia is applied just as a sanction, and (from the view point of Ukraine) seems fair this way, other oil producers may have concerns that upon success this cap ...
- 16.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Who officially owns the fuel tanks in Gaza that Israel said (around 26 Oct 2023) have half a million liters of fuel?
From a CNN Live News feed, 9:33 p.m. ET, October 26, 2023 —
On Gaza's dwindling fuel supplies: Hagari also reiterated that Israel would not allow fuel into Gaza for now, saying that Hamas’ arrays are ...
- 34.4k
5
votes
Accepted
What safeguards have allowed Russia to be immune to/undeterred by sanctions enacted thus far?
Very broadly:
Over a decade, Kremlin policy has carefully reduced domestic public and private sector debt and allowed the central bank time to build a war chest of foreign assets large enough to ...
- 3,448
5
votes
Did the sanctions against Russia take into account that oil price might neutralise their effect?
As far as I am aware, there are no sanctions on oil or gas yet.
Instead, the sanctions come in two flavours: one is the part where Russian banks are cut off from the international banking system and ...
- 13.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Did US threaten Iran to prevent its tankers delivering oil to Venezuela?
Not as far as I can tell. The closest I can find is this statement in which the US criticise Venezuela for making the deal:
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Sunday: "...
- 1,848
5
votes
Which countries have oil stockpiles?
what are barrels of oil that are already extracted and sitting around waiting to be used called
These barrels of oil can also be called "oil reserves". You might need context to ...
- 32.4k
5
votes
Which countries are affected by Russia's decree banning oil sales to them?
They haven't said yet.
As of Dec 28th, 2022, we don't know.
The decree is On the application of special economic measures in the fuel and energy sector in connection with the establishment by some ...
- 4,618
4
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Why might the size of companies make it harder for governments to tax them?
The "changes of the 60s and 70s" refers particularly to the founding of OPEC, and the subsequent oil crises
The point of the oil companies being too big to tax is that, prior to OPEC the oil ...
- 115k
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