Russia Says New US Energy Sanctions Will Destabilize Global Markets

MOSCOW, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday that the latest round of U.S. sanctions on the Russian energy sector risked destabilizing global markets, and Moscow would do everything possible to minimize their impact.

“It is clear that the United States will continue to try to undermine the positions of our companies in non-competitive ways, but we expect that we will be able to counteract this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“At the same time, of course, such decisions cannot but lead to a certain destabilization of international energy markets, oil markets. We will very carefully monitor the consequences and configure the work of our companies in order to minimize the consequences of these … illegal decisions.”

The U.S. Treasury imposed wider sanctions on Russian oil on Friday, targeting producers Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM and Surgutneftegaz, as well as 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil.

The move was meant to cut Russia’s revenues for financing the war with Ukraine. A U.S. official said the sanctions could cost Russia billions of dollars per month if sufficiently enforced.

The sanctions have prompted Chinese and Indian refiners, which have bought heavily from Russia, to seek alternative supplies of crude oil. Many of the tankers hit by the latest measures have been used to ship oil to those two countries.

Peskov said modern experience had shown it was impossible to cut natural supply routes for energy.

“You block something in one place, and an alternative option appears somewhere else. Therefore, a search will be conducted for work options that will minimize the consequences of sanctions,” he said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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