Contest for Oil Like Russia’s Is Finally Heating Up for Europe
- Sour crude market tightens on OPEC+ cuts, halt of Kurdish oil
- Spot premium of Iraq’s Basrah crude to Europe at strong level
The TotalEnergies SE Leuna oil refinery in Leuna, Germany.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Europe’s oil refiners, already making do without longstanding shipments of Russian crude, are now struggling with the loss of similar supplies from northern Iraq and a shock reduction in output by several of the world’s top producer nations.
Flows from Russia — formerly the European Union’s top supplier — have plummeted by more than a million barrels a day since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, amid ever-tightening sanctions.