MOSCOW, Sep 2 — PRIME. Any attempts to artificially limit world oil prices will have a side effect in the form of increased market imbalance and the appearance of artificial imbalances, Yury Shafranik, chairman of the Council of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia, chairman of the board of directors of Soyuzneftegaz, said in an interview with the Prime agency.
The “price ceiling” is another imbalance in the market, and this means that we alone (the Russian Federation – ed.) should not be nervous,” Shafranik said. “We’ll all be nervous together.”
The head of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia noted that at present the world oil market is already somewhat unbalanced, and attempts similar to those that other countries are trying to make with regard to Russian oil will only increase the existing imbalance.
The leaders of the G7 countries (Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the USA, France and Japan) at the summit on June 26-28 confirmed their intention to reduce dependence on energy from Russia and tentatively agreed to start limiting prices for Russian oil and gas. At the beginning of July there were proposals to set the limit at half the current price. The next discussion of the oil price ceiling at the level of the G7 finance minister is scheduled for Friday, September 2.