The "Sanctions War" will be lost by the West

[dan_s]

In rebuke to west, OPEC and Russia aim to raise oil prices with big supply cut. New York Times.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, acting as leaders of the OPEC Plus energy cartel, agreed on Wednesday to their first large production cut in more than two years in a bid to raise prices, countering efforts by the United States and Europe to choke off the enormous revenue that Moscow reaps from the sale of crude. President Biden and European leaders have urged more oil production to ease gasoline prices and punish Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, has been accused of using energy as a weapon against countries opposing its invasion of Ukraine, and the optics of the decision could not be missed.

Biden and the G7 don't seem to understand that they are "Price Takers" not "Price Makers" thanks to their stupid energy policies.

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christophe ... c8a84232ce

"The OPEC nations do not appreciate the G7’s harebrained attempts to try to impose a price cap on trade in Russian oil, because it sets a bad precedent that oil consuming nations think they have a say in setting prices. That will backfire. By insisting on price caps, says oil analyst Anas Alhajji, “Unwittingly the G7 have forced OPEC+ to stick together and support Russia in its oil trade on one hand, and think about a major production cut on the other.” Neither do OPEC nations appreciate the Biden administration unilaterally competing with them by selling 1 million barrels per day (200 million cumulative so far this year) from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. When it became clear in recent months that there was no oil supply emergency, the White House could have reduced SPR releases. Instead Biden sent Janet Yellen to appeal personally to Gulf oil ministers not to cut."