Senator Calls On Trump To Embargo Russia, OPEC Crude

Authored by Julieanna Geiger via OilPrice.com,

“We will not be bullied” is the message Senator Kevin Cramer would like President Donald Trump to send to Saudi Arabia and Russia about the unsettled oil markets that the two nations, along with the UAE are presently flooding.

The Republican Senator from North Dakota issued a letter to the President on Wednesday, calling for an embargo for crude oil from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other OPEC nations.

The letter requests that an “immediate signal” be sent, saying that “The United States will not be bullied or taken for granted,” according to the Senator’s Twitter feed.

“Foreign nations are now using the environment of the worldwide spread of COVID-19 to flood the market and cripple our domestic energy producers.”

Senator Cramer takes an additional dig at Russia’s actions: “these bullying tactics by Russia have become the norm”, adding that Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has been our partner, making its actions particularly concerning.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the UAE have all vowed to ramp up oil production as of April 1 when the current OPEC agreement to curb oil production is set to expire, and Saudi Arabia has already prepared to unleash a flood of cheap crude on the market next month.

Of the 284.3 million barrels of oil the United States imported in December last year, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States imported an average of 43.7 million barrels of oil from OPEC nations (14.5 million of which came from Saudi Arabia), and 21.5 million barrels from Russia.

Embargoing oil from Saudi Arabia, Russia, alone would mean a loss of 1.166 million barrels per day (bpd) using December import rates. This compares to 4.784 million bpd from Canada, or 641,000 bpd from Mexico.