Russia becomes second largest supplier of oil to the United States as invasion of Ukraine continues (February 26, 2022)

According to an article in Bloomberg, Russia became the 2nd largest supplier of oil to the United States. The United States imports of crude and refined petroleum products from its former Cold War adversary surged 23% in May to 844000 barrels a day from the prior month, government data showed. Mexico was pushed out of the Number 2 spot as its shipments to its northern neighbor only rose by less than 3%.

The United Kingdom and the United States have been pushing to get Russia removed from the SWIFT banking system, but other European countries are against it because most of the gas and oil trades are done using SWIFT. It would make it very hard for them to buy their gas and oil at their supplier, Russia. So Europe is in the middle, unable to decide what to do, even though their NATO allies demand action, the European Union is closely tied to Russia and the people of Europe need to drive cars and heat their homes. And now it turns out that the United States is technically in a similar position.

But creepy Joe Biden and his friends are not giving up easily. The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain was pushing hard for Russia to be removed from SWIFT, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said such a move should not be included in a European Union sanctions package. As mentioned before, because of Europe’s heavy reliance on Russian energy exports, analysts said, there is a reluctance among euro area leaders to take the step of removing the country from SWIFT and risk those purchases by making doing business with Russia more costly and complicated.

The Belgian messaging service, formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the world. It is viewed as a potential nuclear option in the world of sanctions because, if Russia was kicked off SWIFT, the nation would essentially be severed from much of the global financial system.

Oil prices jumped on Thursday, with Brent rising above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014 before easing, after Russia's attack on Ukraine exacerbated concerns about disruptions to global energy

Sources: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-04/russia-captures-no-2-rank-among-foreign-oil-suppliers-to-u-s https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/business/russia-swift-financial-system.html https://www.ft.com/content/69f72de5-d727-496d-9f9d-316db7bdaf03?sharetype=blocked https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-rises-us-says-russian-attack-ukraine-may-occur-soon-2022-02-24/