At the beginning of the offensive war, Russia tried to put pressure on Western states by reducing or even stopping the supply of gas or crude oil. However, recent developments have shown that this strategy has had only moderate success. The head of the International Energy Agency IEA, Fatih Birol, is sure that Russia has even lost the “energy battle”.
After the enormous price developments in the energy market, oil and gas exports have fallen by 40 percent since the start of the war, according to the agency, which is mainly supported by Western industrialized countries.
“Russia has lost the energy battle,” Birol confirmed to the French newspaper Liberation in Paris on Saturday. The rapid response of the affected countries and the associated aversion to Russian oil and gas in the West have permanently weakened Russia.
Key know-how revoked
But the slump in sales to the West is just the beginning, continues Birol. The exploitation of the Russian oil and gas fields is considered technically and geologically complex – one is also dependent on the know-how from abroadgrassland. “However, they have withdrawn from Russia,” continued Birol. The production of fossil raw materials will therefore decline there in the medium term – Asia will not be able to compensate for the losses in Europe.
Russian profits plummeted
Russia has recently shown itself to be quite adept at circumventing sanctions – for example, building up a so-called shadow fleet to export crude oil. However, according to the Bloomberg news agency, revenues fell sharply compared to last year. In February, it was down 46 percent year-on-year. The sale thus washed a small 7 billion dollars (6.6 billion euros) into the state treasury.
This is because large parts of crude oil exports can only be sold at deep discounts due to the upper price limit set by the G7 countries.
The dependence on Austria is still high
In Austria, the consequences of the energy crisis are still clearly visible. Although it has already taken significant steps to no longer depend on Russian gas, half (47 percent) of its imported gas in January still came from Russia. But here, too, there are signs of easing, both through alternative energy supplies and falling prices on the market.
E-Control boss Wolfgang Urbantschitsch expects that this will again have a positive effect on end customer prices. While he doesn’t expect a drop to the price level of two years ago, there probably won’t be any “peak swings” in prices either. Halfway through the year, electricity and gas prices are likely to fall.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
