WASHINGTON, March 30 (Prensa Latina) – The United States has increased oil imports from Russia over the past week, according to a report released today by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Less than a month after President Joseph Biden’s executive order banning the purchase of crude oil and its derivatives from the Eurasian nation went into effect, the EIA noted in its weekly report that Washington was purchasing around 100,000 barrels a day from March 19-25 has (BD).
This amount exceeds the 70,000 BD brought from Russia in the previous week, the publication said.
Russian fuel imports have been unstable this year, with several disruptions, according to EIA data.
In early March, weekly supply averaged 148,000 BD, peaking in 2022 just before the US President signed the decree that also discourages new investment in Russia’s energy sector.
April 22 is the deadline set by the US Treasury Department to complete transactions for the import of crude oil, derivatives, liquefied natural gas and coal, although there is still a window open due to the oil import contracts with the consortium on the Caspian pipeline.
Those agreements remain in effect because the Biden decree allows the import of non-Russian fuels that are transported through or exported from Russia, the TASS agency said.
According to an EIA report dated March 22 this year, the United States currently imports a relatively small portion of crude oil from Russia, but derivatives, work-in-process oils and fuel oil, represent a larger portion because they are used to supplement the crude oil refining process.
In 2021, purchases from Russia accounted for eight percent of all oil imports from Washington, and more than half were unfinished oils.
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