West’s price cap on Russian oil to wreak havoc on global market, Chinese expert warns

A price cap on Russian oil will wreak havoc on the global market, said Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, according to the Global Times newspaper.

According to him, Europe is already mired in an energy crunch and the move to impose a price cap will wreak havoc on the global energy market.

The split among European Union governments over a Russian oil price cap was "predictable," the paper writes.

Li Haidong noted that European countries had realized that by coaxing Europe into slapping punitive measures on Russia, the US only sought to boost its own gains. If the price cap is decided, observers said, both Russia and Europe will suffer, and the US will be the only one to benefit, the newspaper noted.

Under the looming Russian oil price cap set to take effect on December 5, US legal entities and individuals will be allowed to provide a number of services related to transactions with Russian crude only if the fuel is purchased at a price not exceeding the limit Washington and its G7 partners as well as the EU and Australia will roll out later. Those services include oil trading, financial operations, customs brokerage as well as oil shipments, insurance, compensation and ship registration. Russia warned earlier that it would not export energy to those countries who would agree to the price cap.