Greek Shipowners Unfazed By The Oil Price Cap

Greek shipowners are not worried about a possible fallout for them from the G7 and EU price cap on Russian crude oil, French Liberacion reported, citing the president of the International Chamber of Commerce and the biggest Greek shipowner.

The embargo on the maritime transport of Russian oil will have a positive effect: we shipowners will become richer. Transport costs, which are already skyrocketing, will rise even faster!" Nicolas A. Vernicos told the French news outlet in an interview.

Vernicos went on to add that Greek shipowners will comply with the embargo and the price cap, but noted that "boycotts have the consequence of driving up the prices of goods imported or exported from the embargoed country".

Oil prices slumped following the introduction of the embargo because traders had already factored in both the EU punishment and the G7 price cap, and had concluded they, especially the cap, will not have much of an immediate effect on the availability of Russian oil.

Russia, however, is currently mulling over its response, and one of the options under consideration is putting what would effectively be a floor for the price of its oil, while another is to suspend exports of oil to cap-compliant countries even if they try to import it from third countries and not Russia. A third option is to suspend shipments of oil under contracts that include a clause on the cap, even with countries that are not part of the G7.

Meanwhile, fund manager Eric Nuttall has reminded those watching oil prices that whatever else happens, the world remains undersupplied with oil, suggesting prices may yet rebound.

"We've had inventories fall all throughout this year, despite the biggest release in history from the SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve], both globally and in the U.S. And at the same time, China's demand has been suppressed by a million and a half barrels per day. So fact one is the market remains undersupplied," Nuttall told BNN Bloomberg this week.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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